You’ll have to overlook some of the “dated” technology described in The Goal. The fundamentals have not changed and the book touches on a number of these operational topics: productivity, efficiency, metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs), balanced plant/balanced production, matching supply and demand, set-up costs, inventory carrying costs, economic order quantities (EOQ), economic batch sizes (EOB), independent and dependent demand, statistical fluctuations, process control and statistical process control (SPC), sequencing operations, standard time vs. actual time, queuing, and most thoroughly the theory of constraints. Answer the following questions related to Chapters 1 – 15 (once you post an initial response your colleagues responses will be visible to you too): 1. Right off the bat, we are thrown into a chaotic situation at Alex Rogo’s plant. The Division VP, Bill Peach, is waiting for Alex in the morning upset about late order #41427. Describe the pros and cons regarding how the company filled the order. 2. What did you identify as the main problems in the plant? 3. Because of the required Division performance measures, Alex, along with his key management team are focused on plant efficiencies. Why is this actually hurting the plant? Instead, how can changing focus to Throughput, Inventory, and Operating Expense improve plant performance? 4. What is The Goal that Jonah has Alex determine? 5. During the Boy Scout hike, how does Alex relate the troop hike to plant operations in terms of output, bottleneck creation, throughput, and inventory accumulation?
