The title of this book is “The Goal” written by Eliyah M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, written in the year 1984 it is ranked among the America’s Business Best seller novel. It also has included an interview with David Whitford; this book is a Narrative non-fiction or a personal narrative. The genre of this book is based on the tense with which this book is written and employment of first person narrative. The writer is also feted for other works such as, It’s not luck, Critical Chain and Necessary but not sufficient. The writer sales standing in at 6 million copies and with translations of up to 27 languages, his recent work is publishing of a book known as Necessary but Not Significant.
The purpose of the author in writing this book is to depict new worldwide mechanisms of manufacturing. It also depicts how people want to make a tick so as to better the world as well as their lives. The people in the context try to create solutions to their problems and as they do so they come up with principles that help to make their plant successful. The writer also portrays his love for science; he gives his in-depth knowledge in how plants work as well as describing the manufacturing process.
The novel setting is in a plant, the story teller happens to be the plant manager. As the novel begins the plant manager is seen to be in a rather apprehensive mood, this is caused by the parked Mercedes in his spot by the vice president by the name of Bill Peach. As the story sets in the narrator is confronted two situations, one he has to ship out an urgent order 41427 of which nobody knew about the status of the order. The next thing is that he has to deal with the breaking down of one of the most valuable machines as well as the only machine NCX-10.
The plant manager is torn between processing the order 41427 and to as well assemble the machine NCX-10. Above all this situations the vice president Bill Peach has news for the plant manager, he orders him to get the plant in order or he runs the risk of being unemployed within an ultimatum of three months. The narrator is seen to be in turmoil and he cannot allow the grace that he was met with at his hometown for running the operations of his firm crush him down and looked down upon for failure in proper running of the plant. The novel runs on as it shows how the plant manager vasts effort to make the plant a success as well as to make the plant remain afloat, even while facing depression from his wife’s leaving his family. Alex is now torn between being a plant manager as well as to act as the mother and father of his kids. (Eliyahu, pp 10-130)
The main character Alex is seen as a very resolute person and one who certainly does not give up at the face of such stress or depression, he stands resolute to see the success of his plant. The plant is seen as failing and faces being shut down, however, Alex is not faxed by this and works off to ensure that he is not unemployed or responsible for the loss of jobs of the workers from his hometown. Jonah is seen as a very wise person this is from the knowledge that he churns out to Alex and the plant as a whole so as to revive the plant. Julie from the excerpt can be perceived to be stubborn at the face of his husband’s ordeal with the plant instead of being there for him she runs off to be away from him. Donovan is a very hardworking man he fronts up the people at work in spite of working overdue. Peach is a shrewd vice president, he wants things run as to his expectations and gives consequences to failures. (Eliyahu, pp 10-56)
Body
The main events as written by the author are at the beginning of the novel where the main character Alex is seen to be in a lot of problems with his plant. Alex is portrayed at a risk of losing his jobs and as well the shutting down of the plant and loss of jobs to the employees they have hired. Given that it is in his hometown Alex does not want to run the risk of being critiqued for making the plant fall. He then runs into Jonah who was his tutor at an instant who guides him in assessing the plant’s problems and who turns out to be of great help to him. He helps him realize how they would maximize their costs by advising on the need to avoid time wastage on a machine lying around not being operated.” I freeze for a moment and realize he’s referring to his question, what is the goal?” this sets Alex to realizing the main aim of being in the manufacturing sector as set out to him by Jonah.”The goal of a manufacturing organization is to make money,” I say to him.” And everything else we do is a means to achieve the goal”. (Eliyahu, pp 65-70)
When his wife also walks out of him this also acts as a depressing moment for Alex this also helps him to weigh in the importance of his family as much as running of the plant is concerned. There is also an instant of self-realization at this time for Alex as he also runs to appreciate the input of his wife to his family and from this thus it would help to become a better husband. (Eliyahu, p 130)
Lou helps Alex realize how throughput and inventory are important to the running of his organization then at least are the operating costs. “To the extent that we regarded it as assets. The plants scope is assorted. Throughput is top in priority, then follows inventory due to its effect on throughput, the least priotised is the expenses incurred from operation costs. And the numbers certainly prove it,” this is evident as Lou says it. It is from this that helps Alex to change the tact by which he runs the plant. (Eliyahu, pp 56-62)
The novel is trying to showcase through a narrative the journey of self-realization for Alex. The events from the beginning of the excerpt are juxtaposed to the end to help show how the main character realizes what he has not been doing right. Through events that the narrator comes across he realizes that apart from just being a plant manager he was not incorporating various factors for the proper running of his plant. The narrator through events of running into his tutor Jonah as well as the trek with his son and his scout counterparts, he uses these ideas that he has learnt from the events that act as eye openers to him.
Conclusion
If I was the author of the novel I would make it more factual to the logistics of business by exempting the family details in the novel. I would also show how more the Plant was set to work and how it revived with clear frameworks that helped the plant to continue operations. I would also integrate how the plant continued on to grow or how it countered future problems that may have risen.
The writer’s style of writing is depictive; this is by use of a narrative to relay his idea. Opposed to other authors who employ complex jargon’s his novel is clear and concise as well as employment of simple language to explain his intended message that is easily understandable by anyone.
The novel as it has been written it is completely precise. However diagrams would have been more vivid, the reason is to break monotony of the reader and to avoid boredom as a result of ploughing to large volumes of text.
The writer has a clear flow of his ideas the organization of his book is quite captivating. He employed the appendices after relaying his main idea, even though he did not include the glossaries he employed a very simple language that can be easily understood throughout his novel. However his lack of inclusion of the index is a failure to the novel and that is the only apparent fault in the organization of the novel.
Work Cited
Eliyahu, Goldratt M., and Jeff Cox “The Goal.” Novel Based On a Process of Ongoing Improvement 3rd Edition (2004): 10-393
