1. The Goal
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, North River Press, Inc., Second Revised Edition (1992).
8/27/04
Paul A. Jensen
Operations Research Models and Methods
Copyright All rights reserved

2. Set the Stage Alex Rogo, plant manager of the Bearington plant
Bearington plant, part of the UniWare Division, part of the conglomerate UniCo
Alex meets Jonah, his college physics professor, at the airport

3. Interchange between Alex and Jonah at Airport

4. Airport conversation continues

5. Alex and Jonah: a conflict
Alex: I am running an efficient plant.
Jonah: You are running an inefficient plant.
Data
Machines run 90% of the time.
Unit costs are low.
More products are not shipped.
No one is fired.
Inventory is not decreased.
Inventories are high.
Can't ship on time.

6. What is the source of the conflict?
Productivity: Anything that moves toward the goal is productive. Anything that moves away from the goal is not productive.
Alex and Jonah have different definitions of the goal.
What is the goal?

7. Question left by Jonah: What is the Goal?
Make product
Increase market share
Produce quality products
Produce efficiently
Hire workers
Support the city, state and national economy
Increase stockholder value

8. Why is a goal important? Directs decisions
Allows Measurement of accomplishment
Without goals we are moved by the current requirements to the exclusion of concerns for the future.
What would Deming say is the Goal?
Point 1: Constancy of Purpose for the Improvement of Product and Service.
We need one goal not many

9. What is the goal of a public company?
Make money now and in the future

10. How do we measure progress toward the goal?

11. Financial Measures
What Financial Measures Describe the Goal of Making Money?
Net Profit (NP)
Return on Investment (ROI)
Cash Flow (CF)
Are these sufficient for making decisions?

12. Can NP, ROI and CF be used to make decisions?
Engineering Economics says “yes”
Accept the project if the IRR of the cash flow is greater than the MARR.
Goldratt would say “no”
It is difficult to see how the global measures are affected by individual design and operating decisions.

13. What Operational Measures Describe the Goal?
Throughput (TP)
Rate at which system generates money through sales. Sales Revenue - Raw material Expense
Inventory (I)
All the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell
Operational Expense (OE)
All the money that the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput

14. How do these measures relate financial measures?
NP = TP - OE
ROI = NP/I
Cash flow is OK if
cumulative income + initial cash > cumulative costs.

15. How do the measures relate to decisions?
Operational
Financial TP NP
ROI CF I NP
ROI CF OE NP
ROI CF
An effective decision simultaneously increases TP, decreases I, and decreases OE.

16. Was the decision to add robots a good idea?

17. The Goal
The goal is to reduce operating expense, reduce inventory while simultaneously increasing throughput. The most powerful effect is to increase throughput.