The Goal by Eliahu Goldblatt

I have just finished reading one of the most important books I will read in business school, The Goal by Eliahu Goldblatt.  This is not your normal novel, it is more like a tale from Aesop's Fables in that it is supposed to teach you something.  In this case the lesson is on production techniques in a modern manufacturing facility.  The book illustrates Goldbatt's systematic way to think about the obstacles facing a plant manager, but these lessons don't stop at the shop floor.  They can be applied to any "productive" activity.

The only time I have ever spent in a factory was a tour I took of a yogurt plant earlier this year.  Frankly, I know next to nothing when it comes to a supply chain, yet The Goal's system of logically identifying constraints and overcoming them doesn't depend on what type of factory you are in at all.  In fact, the book takes place mainly in a widget factory where all products are just known by their nondescript names, "The Model 12."  The book is similarly light on character depth, but while you are reading you engrossed thinking about the bottlenecks in production from your own life.  For me that would be reading and writing.  Not that I am illiterate, but as the year comes to a a close, I realize I have not completely finished one of the books on a must-read list I had made earlier in the summer.  I would also like to write more as well, but often find the process rather tedious. (Note the deliberate attempt at writing in this piece).  The book basically suggests that we would address my writing problem as follows,

"Define the problem." There is a constraint on my productive activity.  I do not finish the reading I would like to, and fail to write hardly anything meaningful at all.  Thus, I am the least useful person in my book club.

"What is the hold up?"  The real constraints I feel is the lack of time.

"Is there anything that can be done to overcome the constraint?"  Sure, I spend a lot of time bitching about things before actually writing anything down.  Cut that out and we will get straight to work.  As far as reading goes, I am constantly getting interrupted by emails and the like as I read.  A solution would be to set aside time for reading without these distractions.

And now that we have solved this problem to some degree we can continue to improve the process.  The goal is to apply yourself to a problem at the most crucial point at some fundamental level.  I clearly think that there is a broader lesson here to address some of the world's more persistant problems, but that will have to wait for next time.