Introduction
Managing production processes is a complex aspect that requires knowledge of many specific principles. These include a variety of theories and rules that reflect the true meaning of process efficiency. Moreover, the concept of efficiency differs for each process, considering its features. Inappropriate goal setting can formulate the impossibility of achieving it at the initial stage. In addition, it is necessary to correctly prioritize since each part of the process can influence the final result in its way. The purpose of the work is to analyze the proposed models from the book The Goal using an example from my own life.
The Goal
Not many people can become successful managers of large enterprises, and after reading the book The Goal, the reasons for this become clear. In the book, Eliyahu M. Goldratt represented the notions of the goal, the process, and the essential parts of the process based on the theory of constraints (Goldratt). The model involves finding the most suitable constraint that will subsequently affect the efficiency of the entire system. The main idea is that by making efforts on a smaller amount of certain parts of the system, you can achieve a better result than if you act with a more significant amount. In other words, by choosing the right places in the chain and working with them, the result will be more efficient than if one works with the entire chain but puts less effort into certain positions.
It was vividly visualized in the example of production, which worked at a loss due to the wrong distribution of forces and priorities. Moreover, the protagonist of the book sets himself invalid goals, having no idea of the importance of correctly identifying the objectives. Thereby, before meeting Jonah, Alex Rogo, the protagonist of the book, thought that increasing the efficiency of the plant by installing new robots would help get out of the crisis (Goldratt). However, Jonah, a demanded production consultant, explained that the main task is to make a profit by analyzing all possible links in the production chain (Goldratt). Increasing the efficiency of production only led to the accumulation of products and spending on logistics, but not to an increase in revenue.
It turned out that to achieve the result, it was necessary to take into account many details in the production process. These included the serviceability of particular machines, the load on certain production sites, and other, at first glance, unnecessary details. Instead of increasing efficiency, thus, working with the entire chain at once and distributing efforts to incorrect places, it was necessary to work with certain links in the chain and correct individual machines. Finding appropriate parts of the chain determines the skill of the manager, namely the ability to pay attention to those production areas that need to be processed.
Talking about how the principle proposed in the book was applied to the example of my life, I can highlight the moment of effective learning. As already indicated, constraint theory involves identifying a possible constraint that will increase the efficiency of the process as a whole. It happened in the pre-exam reading aspect, where I tried to read as much material as possible at a time, take a short break, and again spend a lot of time reading. As a result, I managed to read for 4-5 hours; although I spent the whole day, the rest of the time was spent on long breaks because I couldn’t do short ones. In addition, the reading efficiency dropped sharply for the last hour and a half, and less material was memorized.
Not realizing that such a theory exists, I applied it to the process of reading materials. Therefore, I began to spend 40-50 minutes continuously reading and taking 5-10 minutes breaks, doing warm-ups. Thus, I limited one indicator, namely the reading time, which in the future increased the efficiency of the process as a whole. Similarly, I spent the whole day, but after decreasing my reading time, I was able to study for 6-7 hours. In addition, the material was remembered better since I gave unloading for the brain during the break. Finally, a light warm-up during the break increased mood and motivation.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is worth noting that before applying the theory of constraints, similarly to the main character, I tried to influence the system as a whole without changing its certain places. I tried to take more breaks, read at night, and overcome myself, which did not improve my efficiency as a result. However, limiting one detail and correcting another, namely the quantity and warm-up during the break, helped to increase the efficiency of the entire system. It shows how important it is to determine the actual cause of the inefficiency of a particular process and deal with it.
Work Cited
Goldratt, Eliyahu. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. (3rd ed.). Routledge, 2016.