Customer Reviews

The Goal

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although this book is intended as a lesson for operations managers, the concepts taught proved invaluable to me as a Controller. The Goal teaches us that conventional cost accounting measurements are not a true indicator of the success or failure of a plant. Moreover, they can actually hinder improvements and rational decision making. The book teaches us to break out of the mold we have been stuck in for so long. Getting it on audio tapes was a plus, as it was a much more productive way to spend my drive home. To any accountant who has not read this book DO SO NOW, for your plant's sake!

After picking up The Goal I was impressed with the way it was written. Reading a business book in a narrative format was something I did not expect to see. The narrative format helped to grab my attention and keeping it through the book. It is no wonder that is has sold over a million copies. I have since recommended this book to both family and friends not just as a book about business but it can help in every aspect of life. My manager friends who have started the book say that the approach to keep it away from the traditional business snooze books is great. I loved the fact that he was able to let the reader figure out what Jonah (an oracle like figure) meant before Alex got it. I felt it did take Alex a long time to understand and it did seem there was some basic changes in his plant that the untrained eye could see but over all I have nothing but praise for this book. If it weren't for the fact that Jonah did arrive at the plant it could have almost been thought of that Jonah was the subconscious of Alex Rogo and he had the answers all along. I felt that The Goal did a great job leaving an open ended question, showing that yes, indeed life is a process of on going improvement.

It is very interesting novel. It is also a non-fiction on foundations of production management. The author achieves sufficient balance in narration. The basic focus is how to view the bottleneck production centers. He draws attention to philosophical flaws of traditional management's ( both production and accounting group) approach to this aspect. He leads to this analysis by discussing a camp trip of the hero with his son and his friends. The novel should have stopped with the possibility of hero's promotion as divisional manager. ( The discussion about theory of constraints is an essay. Trying to push that discussion spoils the climax of the novel).

This book seemed like the thing I had been waiting for for so long. All other business books I've read pale in comparison, they are just small patches to a big problem. Goldratt made my brothers and I rethink the way we have been running our small family business and we are now heading on a new direction under TOC. Highly, highly recommended.

Finally someone moves us from the bean counter mentality to how to make money in manufacturing. I thought this book was excellent, I have taken several manufacturing management course, both undergraduate and graduate level and reading this book gave me more insight to running a manufacturing facility. Everyone from the President to first line supervisors should read this book.

A friend asked if I had read the Goal. "Of coure", I said. I then looked for my copy which may have been left at the office when I retired, so I checked, Amazon on the web and ordered a new copy. I first read this book in 1984, 3 years after joining a Japanese Auto Company. At that time I thought Goldratt had written a book on the small plant I was managing--the only difference being we did not have a hill on which to drink beer and overlook the plant. Of course, we frowned on drinking whenever one was to return to the plant. I was so taken with the book that I sent copies to my managers and to our Corporate Staff. Everyone I had sent a copy to had it turn had their subordinates read it. Common sense, the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, lower inventories, eliminate bottlenecks, etc. can be said to be "Common Sense", but, Goldratt made a very entertaining, thought provoking story out of those details.

This book is the bible of problem-solving techniques for managers who will lead through change and improvement...which are inevitable in any industry. It lets you know that as a manager, you don't have to have all the answers, you must know how to find the problems and apply techniques that will solve them while enslisting the minds of your people to do the same. This book is very inspiring for anyone who seeks to constantly improve professionally and personally.

I will have to give this book all five stars,as I have been in management for anly two years now and this book has boosted my confidence by 100%. Strangley enough I am not a production nor manufacturing manager but tet the sheer simplicity of the book let me use its principles to let me apply myself to the everyday tasks thatr managers face. Mr. Goldratt , this ones a stormer...thanks!

This book is a great follow-up to The Machine That Changed the World. I found myself excited to drive back and forth to work to listen to some more. The story of how the manager changed his plant into a productive unit was excellent. His life on the side was sometimes a little slow, but the overall book with great. The few added sound effects the tapes provided seemed to only add to the book.

Goldratt teaches practical, simple lessons on how to make substantial productivity improvements in a manufacturing process by rethinking the production flow. Operations professionals must read this book to see how common sense can really impact an organization. Now that it's on tape, there's no excuse not to!