The Goal

A detailed Summary of The Goal

The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, is the story of a man who at his crossroads, and what direction he decides to take. The story is about a plant manager named Alex Rogo. We find Alex six months into his first plant managers position at UniCo, in the UniWare Division. The plant is located in Bearington Massachusetts, where Alex grew up. UniCo is definitely a manufacturing plant, what they manufacture, I still do not know.

The story begins when Alex's supervisor, Bill Peach, comes into the plant and nearly turns everything upside down. After Alex puts out all of the fires that Bill had set, they sit down in Alex's office and talk. Bill tells Alex that production has gone down in the six months that Alex has been at the helms, and an irate customer, Bucky Burnside, has an order that is fifty-six days overdue, and Alex must get that order shipped before anything else. Bill also says that if the plant does not turn around in the next three months, he will make a recommendation to close the plant. A few days later, Alex hears more of the same at a corporate meeting and figures out why Bill was upset. After the meeting Alex reaches for something and comes across a cigar he received from a chance encounter from and old physi

cist he knew from his college days.

Alex is successful at home just as much at work. Julie decides to move back in after rekindling their relationship. In her time away Julie read about Socrates and found out that Jonah had been using the Socratic method all along. She shows Alex that giving the answer is not always the key, but helping one ask the questions is the true answer.

At home, Alex's wife, Julie, complains again that Al is never home. Al explains again, that it is because of the plant. After arguing about why he needs to work as much as he does the two reach a compromise. Alex tells Julie that he will bring his paperwork home, and take care of the fires at the office while he is there, in order to spend more time with Julie and the kids. The next morning, Alex is woken by his son who reminds him that he promised to help lead the scout hike overnight. Alex leaves without waking Julie, and finds himself to be the only parent "helping" on the hike. Throughout the course of the hike, Alex realizes that an overweight boy, Herbie, slows down the middle and the end of the line. Alex does not understand why the line separates so greatly if all the boys are walking at two miles per hour. Eventually it dawns on him that Herbie is the statistical fluctuation and the rest of the line of kids are dependent events. When Alex returns home the next day from the hike, Julie has left. Alex realizes that he needs to work on his marriage as much, if not more than his work, because both are in trouble. In my estimation this is the turning point of the story, this is where Alex reevaluates the way he has been looking at things for the past few months, years, maybe his entire life.

The next step for Alex is too cut his batch sizes to cut his inventories down and improve overall efficiency of the plant. With shortened lead time, the whole production process is able to respond to market demand faster. Alex starts promising sales that orders that used to take five months, now will only take four weeks due to the shorter lead times. The three months is up, and Bill Peach still is not completely sure about whether or not this current success is not just a flash in the pan. Bill tells Alex that if he does not see a 15% improvement the plant will close. Business is great and with the help of Alex's accountant Lou, the plant show an increase of 17%, however according to traditional accounting methods the increase is only 12.8%. On the day of the performance review, Bill Peach does not show up. Hilton Smythe, the productivity manager, and a rival of Alex's takes notes and makes his recommendation for the plant to be closed because of the a

Some common words found in the essay are:
Alex York, Crisis Alex, NCX-10 Jonah, Bill Peach, Bucky Burnside, Evidently Bill, London Jonah, Operational Expense, Hilton Smythe, O'Hare Alex, bill peach, alex staff, jonah explains, tells alex, goal company, balanced plant, bill tells alex, alex realizes, productivity alex, cash flow, alex tells, jonah explains alex,

Approximate Word count = 1797
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels