The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The Goal was written 25 years ago, yet it is still a best seller worldwide. It is estimated that 20% of business people have read it, more than any other business book.

Over 5% of businesses worldwide have implemented some of the common sense methods described in The Goal with significant results:

• 70% reduction in lead time
• 65% decrease in cycle time
• 44% improvement in due-date performance
• 49% deduction in inventory
• 63% increase in revenue

The World of the Theory of Constraints: A Review of the International Literature (The St. Lucie Press/Apics Series on Constraints Management)

The Goal, there’s this Herbie boy, who is the constraint for the Boy Scout troop, was slowing down the whole team’s hike.

The hike was taking much longer time than expected. The only way the troop  could finish the hike sooner was to find a way to make Herbie go faster.

Finally, the troop put Herbie at the front of the line, distributed the contents of his backpack, and finished the hike at a much faster rate.

Of course, the hike was an analogy for improving a business, and made the point that is always someone or something is restricting the business from achieving more of its goal.

For a business, that goal is usually “to make more money now and in the future”. If your business is not making an infinite amount of net profit, someone
or something is holding you back!

PS: The Goal is leading the votes for “Best Business Books of All Times”. Go to http://800ceoread.com/bookvote/ to see the most read business book by CEO worldwide!