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The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement Paperback – January, 1992

by Eliyahu M. Goldratt (Author), Jeff Cox (Author)

337 customer reviews

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Over 2 million copies sold! Used by thousands of companies and hundreds of business schools! Required reading for anyone interested in the Theory of Constraints. This book, which introduces the Theory of Constraints, is changing how America does business. The Goal is a gripping, fast-paced business novel about overcoming the barriers to making money. You will learn the fundamentals of identifying and solving the problems created by constraints. From the moment you finish the book you will be able to start successfully addressing chronic productivity and quality problems.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A survey of the reading habits of managers found that though they buy books by the likes of Tom Peters for display purposes, the one management book they have actually read from cover to cover is The Goal." -- The Economist

"Anybody who considers himself a manager should rush out, buy and devour this book immediately. If you are the only one in your place to have read it, your progress along the path to the top may suddenly accelerate...one of the most outstanding business books I have ever encountered." -- Punch Magazine

"Like Mrs. Fields and her cookies, The Goal was too tasty to remain obscure. Companies began buying big batches and management schools included it in their curriculums." -- Fortune Magazine

"This theory provided a persuasive solution for factories struggling with production delays and low revenues." -- Harvard Business Review

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: North River Press; 2 Revised edition (January 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0884270610
ISBN-13: 978-0884270614
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 337 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Books > Business & Money > Processes & Infrastructure > Structural Adjustment
- #10 in Books > Business & Money > Processes & Infrastructure > Organizational Change
- #22 in Books > Business & Money > Management & Leadership > Production & Operations

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Top customer reviews

IME415Marshall

ByAmazon Customeron May 17, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The book: The Goal, attempts to teach valuable lessons about industry while keeping the reader entertained with an interesting side story. When I began reading, I had doubts that the book would effectively be able to hold my attention. I also was concerned that the personal side story would just waste my time. I was; however, pleasantly surprised. The book far exceeded my expectations in every way. Mr. Goldratt was very successful in capturing the mindsets within industry. I found myself drawing parallels between the book and my own experiences in industry. The different aspects of industrial thought I believe this book did a good job capturing include: resistance to change, narrow mindedness, and corporate bureaucracy/pressure. Mr. Goldratt based his characters off his own coworkers and the resulting realism was very evident. One of the important and interesting messages this book conveyed involved the true meaning of productivity. Before reading this book, I assumed that a productive facility was one in which the works were always busy and working. That assumption was proven incorrect as I continued my read. I recommend this book and regard it as one of my favorites. Once you learn what “the goal” of a production facility really is, it is all the easier to enjoy reading it.
P.S. The goal is to make money.

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but I was glad that our friend Alex got a happy ending all ...

ByARGon April 17, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Interesting text book/novel. Rather than explain technical terms about process flow and constraints, a middle aged manager discovers them himself while going through a divorce and possibly facing his plant closing. Not sure this would teach someone from scratch what a bottle neck was or what throughput is, but it certainly brings it to life. Not exactly a riveting novel either, but I was glad that our friend Alex got a happy ending all around so some investment in characters. I am a big fan of real life problems instead of dry formulas for explaining things so this really satisfies on that level

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is an excellent an enjoyable read

ByJason T.on May 16, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, is an excellent an enjoyable read. It has everything from personal experience, step-by-step discoveries and solutions, misconceptions in the production process, and all the way to inadequate management. Eliyahu also successfully incorporates his own personal life adversity and success while dealing with his professional problems at career.
If you already know the basic definitions for the terms such as bottle necks, efficiency, inventory, and productivity; The Goal has Alex Rogo, the plant manager, discovering these terms and more with a deeper meaning and how they actually relate to manufacturing. For example, at the beginning of the book, Alex was extremely proud of increasing his efficiency and believed it created a positive effect on their overall productivity. After running into an old friend Jonah, which questions his increased efficiency and if they actually increased productivity, Alex soon discovers his misconception of efficiency. Throughout the book, he looks to Jonah like a mentor because Jonah guilds Alex to a deeper understanding of processing product improvement. His long hours and sleepless nights finally lead Alex to understanding the true meaning of efficiency. However, this is only the beginning of the story and Alex has the rest of the book to grasp the full picture of process improvement.
I personal do not read often because I have never found reading as a form of entertainment or enjoyment. With that being said, I surprisingly took a liking to this book and found myself dying to read the next chapter. These lessons that Alex discovered are something that should be learned by anybody studying management, production, process flow, operations, or industrial and manufacturing side or along those lines. I believe these lessons will be extremely useful to me in the future and I know you will feel the same way.

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Good Book about Management and Successful Practices from a Real Life Setting!

ByFrances Michaelon June 15, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I got this as a gift for my brother, he told me he had read it years and years ago and thought it one of the best books he had ever read. So, I thought I would order it for him to read again, since he does not have a copy of it. Then, I left it on the kitchen table until I saw my brother, but saw that my Dad (age 91 yrs) had started reading it and read it clear through in a couple of days. Some real happy readers here!

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GREAT BOOK!!!! Must read!! You learn a lot about TOC!!

ByMaria Medina Alvaon May 20, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s The Goal is a fictional story emphasizing the theory of constraints. The setting is in a manufacturing plant known as UniCo where Alex Rogo is the main character and production manager of the plant. The story starts off with Alex being yelled at by the division vice-president because his facility is a huge mess and is not meeting deadlines. Alex is given a deadline of three months to improve his facility or else it will be shut down. To make the story more interesting Alex is also having marriage problems. At the airport, Alex meets an old friend and they begin talking about the use of robots at manufacturing sites. There Jonah, the old friend, begins to question some of the things that are done at Alex’s manufacturing site such as inventory and keeping all the employees. From there Alex begins to ponder as to what the true goal of the company is and comes up with the conclusion that the goal is to make more money by increasing throughput and reducing inventory and operating expense. Slowly Alex begins to implement the theory of constraints into his facility.
Overall the book was an engaging, easy read. I would highly recommend it because it stresses the theory of constraints in very easy and simple terms, making it easy to understand and follow. Personally I believe that the best part is that the book itself is an example of how the theory of constraints is applied. I myself am an undergraduate industrial engineering student and learned a lot from reading The Goal. I know I will be using the theory of constraints throughout my career and thanks to this book I have a better, clearer understanding of it. If you are interested in an educational fictional story then this is a definite must read. Trust me once you start reading the book you won’t stop reading it until you are done.