Book Report 5: The Goal

  The final segment of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement follows Alex and his team as they try to determine how to maintain momentum after Alex and Lou leave the plant and promotions take effect. Alex is personally concerned with what he will do when he steps into his new position. Where should he begin? He poses this question to the group, who tells him to get to know his new co-workers better, tour the facilities, and so on. Essentially, they break this down into fact-finding, and then debate the usefulness of fact-finding and how to organize the information he may gain. This would use deductive reasoning, by starting with facts and organizing them to construct conclusions. Alex ponders how Jonah handled things, since Jonah is a physicist and has never worked in a plant, but yet is able to understand and effectively advise on plant improvements. Alex spends some time reading through popular science magazines and the like, and ultimately discovers that there is no secret of science that links to understanding the plant, but that the scientific method and inductive reasoning aid in finding the problems within the plant and ways to improve them. In this case, inductive reasoning would involve establishing a hypothesis and then finding the facts to support or disprove it.
   The main gem of this segment of the book is not in what the group discusses, or even Alex's personal findings, but in how the characters work together. Bob, the soon-to-be plant manager, is skeptical and has difficulty thinking outside the box. Stacey has a bad habit of caving in and returning to old habits in regards to releasing materials in the plant, and is constantly apologetic and blaming herself for mistakes. Ralph likes to constantly revisit and revise old theories that the group has discarded to find benefits. He is very analytic and pulls his insight from different areas, such as chemistry, computer science, and history. Bob is frequently impatient with Ralph for bringing up topics that Bob has already abandoned. It seems that, quite possibly, the team's greatest challenge will not necessarily be to maintain and improve plant processes, but to work together without Alex ensuring that everyone's voices are heard.
   In terms of Alex's personal life, his situation with his wife has more or less healed over. Now, every evening they discuss their day, and Alex discusses the plant and his ideas with Julie. It's simple, but it helps Alex and Julie to feel more involved in each other's lives and often helps to brainstorm new solutions to issues in the plant. The greatest thing that The Goal discusses, in my opinion, is to not let random facts cloud one's common sense. The best solutions for Alex's plant were guided by those who knew very little about working in a plant, because they were not side tracked by obscure details. Furthermore, The Goal teaches not to disregard the opinions of those around us, because sometimes even children can guide us in the right direction.