Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s The Goal is an educational business book written in novel form to help illustrate the issues facing the supply chain and manufacturing world. The Goal was written in 1984 and is based on an industrial engineering practice known as the Theory of Constraints. The main character is Alex Rogo, plant manager of UniCo at the Bearington location. The novel takes the reader on Alex’s journey to improve the plant’s performance and gain understanding of the steps to process improvement.
Right from the beginning the reader is clued into the problems that Alex is facing in his plant. It is obvious that the Bearington plant is operating based on expediting, there is no steady process that seems to get orders shipped on time, it based on whichever order has the most visibility. Alex has a background in industrial engineering and has done his best to keep the plant moving with an appropriate flow and keep efficiencies up but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Bill Peach, division manager of UniCo, gives Alex an ultimatum to improve performance at the Bearington plant or it will be shut down. This predicament forces Alex to think about his old physics professor that he recently ran into at the airport, Jonah. Jonah and Alex got into a discussion about the plant and Jonah questioned how successful Alex’s plant truly was. So now that Alex was faced with the plant shut down, he began to think that Jonah knew something that might be able to save the plant.
Once Alex hunted Jonah down, they began to discuss the issues that the plant was facing. Jonah teaches Alex through the Socratic method by asking him questions to force Alex to develop the solutions on his own. The first question was “What is the
Gulfstream Aerospace is one of leading corporate jet manufacturers in the world. They have been building jets since the late 50’s and continue to create top of the line aircraft which have become the status symbol of success. With their success comes an extensive company infrastructure and supply chain. First, we will discuss how Gulfstream uses the location to maximize the effectiveness of its supply chain. Then we will look at the business case for Gulfstream’s approach to its supply chain, and in particular, does it make sense to have a car follow supplies while it is on the rail system. Finally, we will look at Gulfstream’s to the “just in time” manufacturing and its strategic approach to choosing locations.
In The Goal: A process of ongoing improvement, Eliyahu Goldratt uses a form of literature that can be used even in today’s society to introduce his business theory of constraints. This theory is based on a chain with shortfall link in it. Basically, when analyzing any multipart system at any specific time, you will find the area of the system has a limited ability to maximize its goal. In order for this system to accomplish significant improvement it’s necessary to identify the constraint and redefine the system. Goldratt offers a great deal of information that is so basic to today’s management system that any who reads could absolutely benefit from.
The Goal is a book that focuses on the theory of constraints in order to improve production. Eliyahu Goldratt brings us a pleasant story that shows the important strategies that any manager or CEO should follow to be successfully productive, and capable of reaching their goals. The book easily explains and demonstrates many attainable ways for any human being to learn how to manage their industrial relations, business processes, and also, their personal lives.
This report will investigate the British retailer Marks and Spencer. It will analyse why decision making, planning and goal setting are important to the organisation. Decision making is a process of identifying problems and opportunities then resolving them. Mission planning is the way that organisations aim to achieve their goals. All organisations have goals, these are the reasons that the company exists. Boddy (2005:178) states “A goal is a desired future state for an organisational unit. Goals provide a set of detailed objectives for an organisation’s desired outcomes”. Within this report there is a brief outline and history of Marks and Spencer. It will then look at the missions and goals of the organisation and will go on to critically evaluate planning and decision making processes that the organisation could be using. To conclude it will summarise the findings.
The main problem that Excel is confronted with is should the company try to expand into supply chain planning. The main question on the table is does Excel have the ability to complete the entire task in a supply chain from planning to execution? As is, Excel is the largest provider of freight management and contract logistics, and has four teams to accomplish everything they provide. Their four teams include: business development, solutions design, implementation, and operations. With Excel’s great success and achievements in all their past contracts, the company would like to expand into supply chain planning with the help of Haus Mart since they have be in a long standing relationship and already know Haus Mart’s supply chain.
“THE GOAL” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox is about Alex Rogo, who’s not only battling family issues at home but as being a manager over a plant, has also noticed that their profits have been declining over the last few months. Alex then was told he had months to help the company to get back on track or the company will shut down. Alex then reunites with an old physics instructor from college names Jonah, who helps him realize his future goals for the company and the measures that need to be implicated, in order to save the company.
Adjust the flow of product to match demand. In particular, don't trim capacity to match demand. It's a standard cost-cutting procedure, sure. But you'll need that capacity later, if you're serious about increasing throughput.
The Goal is a story about overcoming manufacturing problems that is told through the eyes of a plant manager, Alex Rojo. Alex arrives to work one morning only to discover the division vice-president, Bill Peach, showed up unannounced to see the status of a specific customer order number, discovered the order was incomplete, barked orders at employees to assemble the products, and finally informed Mr. Rojo he has only three months to improve his plant's performance before it's closed because the plant cannot get orders out the door on time. In fact, the order Bill investigated was already seven weeks late and the product not even assembled. After Bill departs, Alex heads to the floor to discover Bill's unexpected arrival has created more problems. The master machinest Bill yelled at before Mr. Rojo arrived quit but only after setting up a machine to complete the seven-week-late order that Bill demanded be shipped out today. The machinest, however, forgot to tighten two adjustment nuts on the machine so several parts must be scrapped, but even worse is that the machine, which just so happens to be the only one of its kind in the plant, is broken.
Manufacturing businesses and business leaders need to increase their focus on key success factors such as: innovation, productivity improvement, investment in people & skills, and funding. Innovation is not just about retention and development, or the latest technology. It’s also about practical and efficient problem solving and business transformation. In the manufacturing industry, this can be achieved by: refining or exploring new supply and distribution channels, establishing new business offerings, developing leaner organizational arrangements, improving processes, providing a better customer experience, and accessing green, clean technology – high on the agenda for environmentally conscious customers (Performance, 2011)
With most aspects of life it is frequently the failures, as opposed to successes, from which we learn the most indelible lessons. With this approach in mind, The Beer Game to a large extent serves as the very antithesis of a properly functioning supply chain. In other words, the exercise demonstrates how NOT to manage a logistic operation. Hopefully, an examination of the pitfalls and shortcomings of a worst case scenario and avoiding the same types of mistakes will lend insight how to correctly manage a supply chain. What otherwise appears as a simple classroom exercise actually represents a powerful training tool with enduring lessons directly transferable to real world application.
The book also discussed the family life of Alex which went up and down because his job took most of time and kept him away from them.
... management ande-procurement: creating value added in the supply chain”,Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 219-26.
Alex exerts his freedom of choice in all aspects of his life. From the time he wakes up in the morning, until he goes to bed at night. Every decision he makes belongs to him. The only person who controls Alex is Alex. He does what he wants, when he wants to. He doesn’t care who he hurts along the way as long as what he is doing makes him happy.
The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive and challenging. In the recent past, manufacturers have found themselves facing the threat of dwindling profit margins due to unfortunate global events such as the 2007 global financial crisis and the on going Europe economic crisis. The need to improve operation efficiency so as to ensure current and future investment yield the highest rate of return has therefore become extremely important. Manufacturers are now actively engaged in, managing their costs, Research and Development, adopting best procurement strategies, among other Actions. While such actions might eventually lead to positive results, additional business value can be achieved through proper management of the supply chain (Waymer, Ivanaj & Mussa 2009; Krivda 2004).
My second interest in Supply Chain Management arose from my assessment that it is a ‘rational’ specialty. I understood that its simplistic applications could find solutions for essential needs of humanity. I realized that Mechanical Engineering has an enormous reach from automobiles and manufacturing to medical equipment and nanotechnology. I studied an extremely stimulating curriculum diligently focusing on Basic Mechanical Engineering and Operations research which gave me a holistic overview of the engineering field. Hence, my penchant for the range and extent of science with Mechanical engineering as the cynosure grew.