Alex's Job example essay topic

Jennifer PurifoyApril 30, 2001 Page 1 of 3 Executive Summary for The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldra he heart of this story is based around the life of Alex Ro go, Plant Manager forUniware a division of Unico. After a very upset customer approaches Alex's boss, Bill Peach, he is given an ultimatum to turn the plant around in three months. Due to the limited amount of time available, there are not many outside tools available such as consultants, surveys, etc. With very few hopes, Alex foresees the inevitable until he remembers his conversation with Jonah, a physicist Alex knew from a previous job.

The Goal: It is not until Alex's job is in jeopardy that he decides to devour into his conversation with Jonah. During the conversation, Jonah asks him several questions to analyze his company's situation. The conversation leads ultimately to the question, 'What is the goal of any business?' After rethinking his conversation, Alex realizes that the goal of any business is to make money. Furthermore, if the goal is to make money any action toward this goal is consider productive and any action not moving towards the goal is nonproductive. Alex unsure of such a simple answer decides to contact Jonah to continue the search for more answers. Measurements: Once Alex contacts Jonah they define the following measurements to define the success of any plant's production: 1.

Throughout = rate that the system is used to generate money through sales. This measurement would consist of what a product would be worth when sold at market value after deducting operational expense and inventory. 2. Inventory = all the money invested in purchasing items that will be sold.

This could include the remains of their machines after being used toward the investment. 3. Operational expense = all the money used to turn inventory into throughput. This would include such items as depreciation of a machine, lubricating oil, scraps, etc.

Balancing a Production Line: Jonah explains to Alex that a plant that is continuously productive in considered inefficient. He further explains that continuous production will result in high absenteeism, poor quality and employee turnover. Based on this, he would need to reduce operational expense and inventory to improve throughput to Jennifer PurifoyApril 30, 2001 Page 2 of 3 demonstrate a balanced line of production. Jonah leaves him to ponder the understanding of two things: what are the dependent events and statistical fluctuations in his plant. Bottlenecks During a hiking trip with Alex's son, he produces a game for a few of the kids to demonstrate an ideal balance line of production.

He does this by setting up dependents and uses a die to measure the statistical fluctuations. At the end of the game, he concluded that the bottleneck's speed of production is what determines the speed of the other dependents. Hence, inventory moves very slow because of statistical fluctuations. This would eventually result in huge bottlenecks over time.

In the end, this is where Alex begins his search inside the plant. Upon arriving back at work, him and the crew begin their search for the bottlenecks. They identify one of the robots, NCX-10, and the heat treatment area as the source of the bottlenecks. Once identified, they begin their search for solving them. These are the steps they proceeded with to solve the bottleneck issue: NCX-10: o Have two employees dedicated to the setup of the robot - this will help ensure that the machine will be continuously running. o Additionally, these employees take their breaks while the machine is working since they are only needed for setup of the next batch. o Continue use of the older machines that the NCX-10 was supposed to replace. o Do not produce parts for inventory - produce only what is in demand (via an order from a customer). o Produce smaller batches to increase productivity for the whole process. Heat Treatment: o Perform quality control testing before going into the bottleneck. o Hire outside vendors to assist in heat treat. o Produce smaller batches to increase productivity for the whole process. o Combine batches that require the same temperature.

With all of these changes however, one thing remains constant: an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour lost at the whole system. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep the bottleneck moving at all times. Based on these few simple steps they significantly increased production by 12%during the first two months and 20% in the third month. Based on these increases, Alex saves the plant and his promoted to Bill Peach's position.

Jennifer PurifoyApril 30, 2001 Page 3 of 3 Marriage and Beyond: Besides the ongoing theme of saving the plant, there is an underlying story about Alex's personal life. In the beginning Alex's wife, Julie, and him are constantly arguing about Alex working late in attempts of saving the plant which flows over into not spending any time with his family. Within the first 100 pages of the book, his wife leaves him, after being exhausted of all attempts to save their marriage. However, during his search for reclaiming the plant he does the same with his marriage. I believe that the author is stating to the audience that there must be a balance between these two lives.

It is important for both to be in harmony because ultimately they will flow in and out of each environment. Overall Review: Overall the book was excellent and easy read. This book would be ideal for anyone interested in simplifying ways to improving any process - whether it is manufacturing or service oriented. These back to basics principles, help breakdown what has become 'common practice'. What I enjoyed about this book most of all, was the layout. The layout consisted of telling a story about Alex in a novel form, which included dialog, plot, etc.

By laying it out in this way it broke the specifics down for a layperson, Alex. After all, Alex represents the average person - job going down the tube and marriage shortly following it. The source of the problem the whole time was following the rules that were and are continuously engraved into us each day.