The Goal

A novel about a plant manager given three months to save his factory, and the book that carried the theory of constraints to a wide audience. The five focusing steps run through the plot, showing how to identify the constraint, exploit it, subordinate everything else to it, elevate it and then start again before inertia sets in. Along the way the story takes apart local efficiency measures and shows why keeping every station busy makes the whole system slower. Product and delivery people read it for the reasoning about throughput, inventory and the difference between being busy and being productive. The revised edition adds interviews and a section on how the ideas spread beyond manufacturing.