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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Great Supply Chain Management book
A great book on how to look how systems and problem solving. It is written in novel format and makes for a quick read.
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Great for the Sales Organization (in a manufacturing company)
I manage a sales organization for a company that is an electronics manufacturer. My sales people are constantly talking to customers who want their orders faster, both when they placed the order within lead time and also when they placed their order with immediately requested delivery but we have a 20 week lead time. It is important that my sales people understand the concept of the theory of constraints and this audio book has given a great, layman terms way to do just that. I listened to it myself and then bought a copy to share in the office as required listening.
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The Goal is only to make money!
The was a story about a slow burning factor, a man that could not keep his family happy, and an idea that took a very complicated situation and turned things around with a little common sense. The Goal starts out with a fire breathing boss storming up and down factor isles in search of one job that must be done "NOW!" However, Peach, the boss, pushing the plant into real nightmare gets what he wants and then lays down an ultimatum that could have six hundred employees brushing off the dust from their resumes.
The Goal has a good flow to the storyline. The read was fairly simple even with complicated concepts that were mentioned and taught by a physicist to be applied to a factor process. The concept in my case were actually a real eye opener in that not one of the concepts; throughput, inventory, operating expenses, or even the two phenomena's, were unfamiliar to me but much easier to follow then in IME 224, no offence to the professor teaching the course. But making this book a mandatory read at that level would, I think, make the concepts much easy to absorb. The hike was the prime example that really brought all the variables together.
Ironically enough I have actually witnessed firsthand the processes of theory of constraints being applied to a factor. The company is located in Murrieta and the company remanufacturers' alternators for Toyota vehicles. The boss of this company told me the me his story about applying theory of constraints to his business after having heard about me being forced to read yet another book in under ten weeks. This boss found the book, read it, walked into work with, with what I believe he said twenty-five copies, handed one out to each of his managers and supervisors, and stated read this book and in one month we will be applying these concepts to my business. The entire crew was on broad at full force except the Japanese headquarters in Japan, kind of ironic.
Overall I absolutely loved the book and recommend anyone to read this book whether or not you run, work, or just look at a factor from time to time. Actually I am twisting my father's arm at the moment to read and apply these concepts to his Short Run Production Machine Shop located here in Chino. The book is a real page turner, and you will be done before you know it. One of the reviews that sticks out in my head that will slightly ruin the ending is one particular company manager applies the concepts to his factor, talks about how his factor production runs transforms identical to Al's plant, the main character, only his wife still hasn't come back yet. Again as stated early, The Goal is a phenomenal book and should be recommended to anyone.
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TOC a great tool to apply in life and business
Eliyahu Goldratt is a physicist who has applied all his science background to business management. He is a guru in the management field. He is the creator of Optimized Production Technology, Theory of Constraints, Thinking Process, Drum-Buffer-Rope and Critical Change Project Management.
This book is a novel which portraits the reality of Alex Rogo who manages a manufacturing facility and the issues and ventures that he goes through in his professional and personal life. It is more than a novel because it exemplifies and introduces Theory of Constraints (TOC) which is a thinking process that uses cause and effect logic to identify, exploit, subordinate and elevate constraints. By constraint, I mean anything that prevents the production plant to make money.
In the book, Alex is given an ultimatum that if he does not improve the efficiency of the plant in three months the corporate is going to close it. During his venture of figuring out how to increase the efficiency and productivity he has to brainstorm and closely analyze his current system to look for constraints. The idea of TOC is introduced to him by Jonah who is a friend of him and also a physicist. I believe that this character represents Goldratt's personality and role in real life. The role of Jonah is a consultant who constantly asks Alex questions in order for him to figure out how to identify the goal of the plant and then find the constraints which have to be reduced in order to fulfill the plant's goal of making profit through sales (throughput). Three measurements are identified in the book which are: Throughput, Inventory and Operational Expenses. The relations or interactions between these measurements are the places where the constraints take place.
As I mentioned earlier, the rest of the book is about different experiences where Alex has to apply the knowledge of TOC to solve problems and in order to identify the constraints he has to ask three main questions:
1. What to change?
2. What to change to?
3. How to cause the change?
After identifying the constraint he applies a 5 step process to work around the constraint or the bottleneck of the system:
1. Identify the constraint
2. Analyze and Exploit the constraint
3. Subordinate or control the constraint by implementing a continuous improvement process
4. If a change occurs then Elevate the constraint (increase the constraint's capacity)
5. Go back to step 1 but keep in mind that since TOC is a cause and effect logic, all the events are dependent on each other so this dependency might cause inertia to become a constraint.
I highly recommend this book. I believe that this book is a great eye opener on how to see not only manufacturing facilities but business in general. The systematic approach explained provides an accurate and general idea on how to apply TOC. A significant fact to mention is that TOC is really important, helpful and unique for each company and it has be built up from basics or from the beginning until a company can actually apply this concept. This is proven in the book when Alex is recognized of fulfilling in his manufacturing facility but then he gets in charge of three plants and that point he has a total new system which has different constraints and company's culture.
As an IE, I believe that there is always room for improvement, so I understand that the book is a novel but I believe that it could be more value adding if there is a reduction in content about Alex's personal life an increase on business management ideas. I believe that there is a lack on schematics, charts and tables which could be helpful as visual aids to understand the TOC process.
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Theory of Constraints
The Goal, by Eliyahu Goldratt is a must read for all those in the industrial or manufacturing engineering field and more importantly into management. The Goal presents a thinking process called the Theory of Constraints, which allows for many to understand how to achieve the ultimate goal of companies, making money. Goldratt explains the importance of increasing throughput and minimizing operation expenses and inventory as the basis of the Theory of Constraints. He also adds the five step process of the Theory of Constraints: Identify the system's constraints; Exploit the system's constraints; Subordinate everything else to the above; Elevate the system's constraints; and If a constraint has been broken, go back to step 1, but do not allow inertia to cause a system's constraint.
As The Goal explains Goldratt's theory, he does so in a narrative. In doing so he makes his points direct, and a very easy read. Also by making it a narrative, it allows the reader to see that while in management there's a life beyond your job and being able to manage both is tough but doable. In addition, while reading the book you are able to put yourself in the shoes of main character, plant manager Alex Rogo, and really understand how to manage a company.
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