The Goal Quotes

“STEP 1. Identify the system’s bottlenecks. (After all it wasn’t too difficult to identify the oven and the NCX10 as the bottlenecks of the plant.)
STEP 2. Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks. (That was fun. Realizing that those machines should not take a lunch break, etc.)
STEP 3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision. (Making sure that everything marches to the tune of the constraints. The red and green tags.)
STEP 4. Elevate the system’s bottlenecks. (Bringing back the old Zmegma, switching back to old, less “effective” routings. . . .)
STEP 5. If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“What you have learned is that the capacity of the plant is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks,” says Jonah.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“So this is the goal: To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“I smile and start to count on my fingers: One, people are good. Two, every conflict can be removed. Three, every situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is exceedingly simple. Four, every situation can be substantially improved; even the sky is not the limit. Five, every person can reach a full life. Six, there is always a win-win solution. Shall I continue to count?”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Since the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link, then the first step to improve an organization must be to identify the weakest link.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“The entire bottleneck concept is not geared to decrease operating expense, it’s focused on increasing throughput.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“utilizing” a resource means making use of the resource in a way that moves the system toward the goal. “Activating” a resource is like pressing the ON switch of a machine; it runs whether or not there is any benefit to be derived from the work it’s doing.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“For the ability to answer three simple questions: ‘what to change?’, ‘what to change to?’, and ‘how to cause the change?’ Basically what we are asking for is the most fundamental abilities one would expect from a manager.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“What I’m telling you is, productivity is meaningless unless you know what your goal is,” he says.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Putting it precisely, activating a resource and utilizing a resource are not synonymous.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“What is the real goal? Nobody here has even asked anything that basic.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Well, I don’t. Not absolutely. But adopting "making money’’ as the goal of a manufacturing organization looks like a pretty good assumption. Because, for one thing, there isn’t one item on that list that’s worth a damn if the company isn’t making money.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“More importantly, our software worked. I don't just mean that it didn't bump, or that it performed according to the written specifications, or that it was efficient in producing reports. It really worked”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“I’m talking about a production employee who is idle because there is no product to be worked on.” “Yes, that’s always bad,” I say. “Why?” I chuckle. “Isn’t it obvious? Because it’s a waste of money! What are we supposed to do, pay people to do nothing? We can’t afford to have idle time. Our costs are too high to tolerate it. It’s inefficiency, it’s low productivity—no matter how you measure it.” He leans forward as if he’s going to whisper a big secret to me. “Let me tell you something,” he says. “A plant in which everyone is working all the time is very inefficient.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Alex, the goal is not to reduce operational expense by itself. The goal is not to improve one measurement in isolation. The goal is to reduce operational expense and reduce inventory while simultaneously increasing throughput,” says Jonah.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“They’re measurements which express the goal of making money perfectly well, but which also permit you to develop operational rules for running your plant,” he says. “There are three of them. Their names are throughput, inventory and operational expense.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“productivity is the act of bringing a company closer to its goal. Every action that brings a company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“In summary, both Ford and Ohno followed four concepts (from now on we’ll refer to them as the concepts of flow): Improving flow (or equivalently lead time) is a primary objective of operations. This primary objective should be translated into a practical mechanism that guides the operation when not to produce (preventsoverproduction). Ford used space; Ohno used inventory. Local efficiencies must be abolished. A focusing process to balance flow must be in place. Ford used direct observation. Ohno used the gradual reduction of the number of containers and then gradual reduction of parts per container. The”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Bob comes into the office with a smear of grease on his white shirt over the bulge of his beer gut, and he’s talking nonstop about what’s going on with the breakdown of the automatic testing machines. “Bob,” I tell him, “forget about that for now.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“One of them, I remember as I’m driving, was whether we had been able to sell any more products as a result of having the robots. Another one was whether we had reduced the number of people on the payroll. Then he had wanted to know if inventories had gone down. Three basic questions.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“measurements which express the goal of making money perfectly well, but which also permit you to develop operational rules for running your plant,” he says. “There are three of them. Their names are throughput, inventory and operational expense.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“On the paper, I write down the three measurements which Lou and I agreed are central to knowing if the company is making money: net profit, ROI and cash flow.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“We do have lots of measurements that are supposed to tell us if we’re productive. But what they really tell us are things like whether somebody down there “worked” for all the hours we paid him or her to work. They tell us whether the output per hour met our standard for the job. They tell us the “cost of products,” they tell us “direct labor variances,” all that stuff. But how do I really know if what happens here is making money for us, or whether we’re just playing accounting games? There must be a connection, but how do I define it?”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Can I assume that making people work and making money are the same thing? We’ve tended to do that in the past. The basic rule has been just keep everybody and everything out here working all the time; keep pushing that product out the door. And when there isn’t any work to do, make some. And when we can’t make work, shift people around. And when you still can’t make them work, lay them off. I look around and most people are working. Idle people in here are the exception. Just about everybody is working nearly all the time. And we’re not making money.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“If the goal is to make money, then (putting it in terms Jonah might have used), an action that moves us toward making money is productive. And an action that takes away from making money is non-productive.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“Then I make a list of all the items people think of as being goals: cost-effective purchasing, employing good people, high technology, producing products, producing quality products, selling quality products, capturing market share. I even add some others like communications and customer satisfaction. All of those are essential to running the business successfully. What do they all do? They enable the company to make money. But they are not the goals themselves; they’re just the means of achieving the goal.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“laugh. I almost choke. Yeah, right. Some of the brilliant idiots in Purchasing sure do act as if that’s the goal. They’re out there renting warehouses to store all the crap they’re buying so cost-effectively. What is it we have now? A thirty-two-month supply of copper wire? A sevenmonth inventory of stainless steel sheet? All kinds of stuff. They’ve got millions and millions tied up in what they’ve bought—and at terrific prices.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

“—No, no lo tengo. Pero voy a hacer un trato contigo. Solo págame el valor de lo que aprendas de mí.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, La Meta:Un Proceso de Mejora Continua (Goldratt Collection nº 1)

“Por lo tanto, ésta es la meta: ganar dinero aumentando la utilidad neta, al mismo tiempo que aumenta el retorno de la inversión y el flujo de efectivo.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, La Meta:Un Proceso de Mejora Continua (Goldratt Collection nº 1)

“Lo primero que estoy intentando es tener una visión clara de lo qué debemos hacer para quedarnos en el negocio.”
― Eliyahu M. Goldratt, La Meta:Un Proceso de Mejora Continua (Goldratt Collection nº 1)