The Goal as a Split-Track Narrative

which focuses on Al Rogo, a plant manager, who is presented as struggling to salvage both his ailing manufacturing plant and his expiring marriage. By juxtaposing two tales where collapse appears imminent, Goldratt heightens the story's narrative suspense while showcasing multiple instances where his innovative crisis management skills would be best applied. His twin focus reinforces his only slightly camouflaged attempt to establish philosophical underpinnings as the basis for all acts of problem solving. While The Goal centers upon developing improved management skills in the midst of crisis, equally it invests itself within the classical format of a quest narrative. Goldratt intentionally fuses business and family problems as a means of exploring how decision processes are integrally related to value. The Goal insists that the best solutions result from the framing of good questions. Goldratt illustrates how the best problem solvers are individuals capable of tapping into their creativity and even more importantly capable of surpassing the limits of their prior assumptions.

Goldratt artfully contends that flexibility is one of the key ingredients for an effective manager. Near the book's beginning, Rogo meets with Lou, the plant controller. These two high ranking plant officials agree that the 3 measurements which are central to knowing if a company is making money are "net profit,

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ust be "unbalanced", allowing for some of its operational elements occasionally to be at rest (84). Efficient plant management learns to recognize and chart the vagaries of dependent events and statistical fluctuations (88). Goldratt amusingly illuminates this principle with an example uncovered in Rogo's supervision of his son's boy scout hike. Herbie, the chubbiest and slowest hiker of the troop, slows down the efficiency of the entire chain of hikers. Watching the hike nearly still to a stalled position, Rogo realizes that Herbie provides an example of a human "bottleneck" (100). When efficiency falters, goals cannot be met. Where Herbie is situated has a direct impact on halting the smooth advance of the hike's flow. Rogo realizes that Herbie's efficiency resembles problem points of production at his own plant. Rogo's valuable insight is that a hike like a plant must be managed according to its constraints (150). According to Jonah's dictum, the best utilization of a resource must be that which moves the entire system toward its goal (211). Accepting this premise, Rogo reorganizes his plant's priorities of production by redesigning the path of product completion on the assembly line. With the help of his inspire
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Socratic Continually, Slowly Rogo, Al Rogo, Jonah Rogo, Enemy Goal, Initially Rogo, According Jonah's, Eventually Rogo, Cox Global, Jonah's Socratic, cash flow, 3 measurements, net profit roi, bearington plant, socratic wisdom, goal insists, solving goal, jonah's style, common sense, efficient plant, statistical fluctuations,
Approximate Word count = 1681
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)