The Goal

Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is a gripping novel, which is transforming management thinking throughout the world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors.

Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. lt takes a chance meeting with a professor from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done.

The story of Alex's fight to save his plant is more than compulsive reading. It contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas, which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Eli Goldratt.

Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt is an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems, and acts as an educator to many of the world's leading corporations. He is the originator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and his ideas are beginning to revolutionize the way companies work.

He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Tel-Aviv University and his Master of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy in Physics from Bar-llan University. In addition to his pioneering work in manufacturing management, he holds patents in other areas, ranging from medical devices to temperature sensors. Dr. Goldratt is a frequent contributor to industrial and scientific journals.

His lectures at universities of Britain, Continental Europe and the USA are sought after and very well received.

The Goal is about new global principles of manufacturing. It's about people trying to understand what makes their world tick so that they can make it better. As they think logically and consistently about their problems they are about to determine “cause and effect” relationships between their actions and the results. In the process they deduce some basic principles which they use to save their plant and make it successful.

Ì view science as nothing more than an understanding of the way the world is and why it is that way. At any given time our scientific knowledge is simply the current state of the art of our understanding. Ido not believe in absolute truths. 1 fear such beliefs because they block the search for better understanding. Whenever we think we have final answers progress, science, and better understanding ceases. Understanding of our world is

not something to be pursued for its own sake, however. Knowledge should be pursued, I believe, to make our world better—to make life more fulfilling.

There are several reasons I chose a novel to explain my understanding of manufacturing — how it works (reality) and why it works that way. First, Il want to show how easily principles can be found and how simple it isto use them to bring order to the chaos that so often exists in our plants. Second, I wanted to illustrate the power of this understanding and the benefits it can bring. The results achieved are not fantasy; they have been, and are being, achieved in real plants. The western world does not have to become a second or third rate manufacturing power. If we just understand and apply the correct principles, we can compete with anyone. 1 also hope that readers would see the validity and value of these principles in other organizations such as banks, hospitals, insurance companies and our families. Maybe the same potential for growth and improvement exists in all organizations.

Finally, and most importantly, 1 wanted to show that we can all be outstanding scientists. The secret of being a good scientist, I believe, lies not in our brain power. We have enough. We simply need to look at reality and think logically and precisely about what we see. The key ingredient is to have the courage to face inconsistencies between what we see and deduce and the way things are done. This challenging of basic assumptions isessential to break-throughs. Almost everyone who has worked in a plant is at least uneasy about the use of cost accounting efficiencies to control our