53 pages • 1 hour read
Eliyahu M. GoldrattThe Goal
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 29-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
A few weeks have passed. Alex has cut the batch sizes at the plant, and “efficiencies have gone up, not down” (238) as a result. Alex has a bad dream about Bill Peach chasing him through the plant. Julie, who is spending the night, wakes up as well, and he shares his fear that the plant’s system of cost measurement will make it look as though the cost of parts has gone up, when really it hasn’t; “in fact it hasn’t really done anything to our actual expenses […] we’ve reduced inventory and increased the amount of money we’re bringing in through sales” (240). Julie doesn’t understand how measurements can possibly be wrong, but Alex explains that the measurement makes incorrect assumptions: “that all the workers in the plant are always going to be fully occupied” (240), for instance.
At the office the next day, Lou thinks he’s found a way to make the cost of parts measurement look better that’s “valid” (241) according to accounting policy. Alex urges him to do it, but not to let anyone know. Alex gets on the phone with Johnny Jons, who tells him that a particularly hard-to-please customer, Bucky Burnside, wants a thousand models of a certain product, but the plant only has 50 in stock. The other 950 would need to be completed by the end of the month. Alex takes the offer to his team. They decide to reprioritize some orders and buy extra material from outside vendors, but it still won’t be enough. Alex presents a counter offer. They will ship 250 units each week for four weeks, starting in two weeks. Bucky Burnside accepts.
Chapter 30 Summary
Another month goes by. Alex holds an advisory team meeting, but Lou is missing. Otherwise, things are going well. The plant is “now solidly in the black […] Throughput has doubled” (247). Alex receives a letter summoning him to a plant manager performance review later in the month, which he is excited about, as the plant is “making money” (248).
The following week, Bob comes to Alex in a panic. Hilton Smyth is at the plant, taking over for Mr. Granby, the CEO. Because of the new way the plant is being run, the robot Hilton wanted to be filmed next to is not currently working on a product. The plant looks inefficient, though it is not. Two days later, Alex attends a meeting with Lou and some UniCo executives. They scold Alex and Lou for not sticking to “approved policy” (250) and for messing with the cost spreadsheets. Despite the improvements they have made, the revised monthly report does not paint a very positive picture. While Lou and Alex discuss what to do, a helicopter lands on the lawn outside. Inside is Bucky Burnside, who praises Alex and the plant for processing his impossible thousand-unit order. Alex makes sure the whole scene is caught on camera. Johnny Jons is ecstatic. He promises to buy Alex a new pair of shoes and to send more business his way.
Alex drives to meet Julie at her parents’ house. He shares the good news of Burnside’s visit and they discuss their marriage, the ways in which they have both pulled away from each other. “We lost sight of what was important” (255), Julie says. They decide that they want to make their marriage work and to “give each other what we need” (256). Julie agrees to come home.
Chapter 31 Summary
Alex attends his performance review with UniCo executives, but finds that Bill Peach is missing, though Hilton Smyth is in attendance. Smyth smugly tells Alex to go ahead with his presentation, clearly under the impression that Alex is about to get fired. Alex begins by asking Hilton if the goal of the plant is to reduce costs. Hilton says it is. Alex delivers a presentation explaining his new policies, with “the goal” as the centerpiece. Hilton is unmoved, but Alex insists that he is “dealing with fundamental assumptions that are wrong” (259). Alex outlines the major points of Jonah’s advice and rules, such as balancing flow rather than capacity, recognizing the existence of bottlenecks and letting them set the pace, and that utilizing a resource or worker and activating that resource are not synonymous. Plus, he adds, his plant is making money. None of the others are. Hilton informs Alex that he’ll be sending Bill Peach a recommendation to close the plant.
After the review, Alex visits Bill Peach. Bill apologizes for missing the review, and calls Hilton in to talk to both of them. Bill decides not to close Alex’s plant. He asks, “Do you think we’re such bad managers that we could close a gold mine?” (262). Bill tells Alex that he is moving up the corporate ladder and has chosen Alex to replace him as vice president. Elated, Alex accepts and then calls Jonah. He asks Jonah to help him learn the management techniques necessary to take over Bill’s job, but Jonah is firm: Alex must learn to do this on his own. His first task will be to “find out what techniques are needed for effective management” (263).
Chapter 32 Summary
Alex shares his good news with Julie. She is happy for him and excited to move away from Bearington, but Alex thinks his family has paid “too big a price for this promotion” (266). He lays all the credit at Jonah’s feet, but Julie refuses to accept this modesty. She is proud of him and knows how hard he worked. Later, Alex begins to seriously think about his first task as vice president. He wonders how he can be as effective at leading as Jonah is. He notes that all of Jonah’s solutions had one thing in common: “They all made common sense, and at the same time, they flew directly in the face of everything I’d ever learned” (267). He discusses this with Julie, realizing that Jonah spent more time asking questions than providing answers. He forced Alex to figure out the solution for himself. “This is the technique I should ask Jonah to teach me: how to persuade other people [...] how to overcome the resistance to change” (269). Julie identifies this technique as the Socratic Method, the method of asking questions designed to illuminate, rather than simply giving answers.
Chapters 29-32 Analysis
One of the most important concepts in the section of the novel is the idea of common sense. Alex’s reaction to Jonah’s various questions early in the novel follow the same basic pattern: at first, Alex is confused. Then, he is incredulous, unable to come up with an answer that fits in with the way his plant has always been run. Finally, he discovers the answer, and is shocked by its simplicity. He can’t understand why he didn’t see it before.
Now, with Alex on the verge of a big promotion, he revisits Jonah’s ideas and attempts to dissect what made them so simple and yet so revolutionary. He decides that “they all had one thing in common. They all made common sense, and at the same time, they flew directly in the face of everything I’d ever learned” (267). In a conversation with Julie, Alex attempts to define “common sense,” and eventually decides that is something not previously thought of, but that falls in line with what the person already knew to be true. Alex has been practicing common sense throughout the novel, both at work and in his personal life.
While the reader may initially be surprised by how easily Julie and Alex are able to reconcile, it is because they both use common sense. They both agree to leave aside their ideas of what their marriage should be like—to ignore what they’d “learned”—and to follow their intuition in giving the other what they needed. Similarly, though Goldratt does not tell the reader what Alex said in his performance review presentation, the UniCo executives—with the exception of Hilton Smyth—are receptive to his ideas. This, we can infer, is because Jonah’s ideas, as presented by Alex, appealed to their own “intuition” (268) and common sense.
