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 33-36Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 33 Summary
Alex decides that when he joins upper management, he will need his advisory team to come with him. He decides to ask Lou first. He meets with Lou, who excitedly tells him that the plant will have twenty percent greater profitability in the next two months. Alex, who has learned not to trust measurements, is skeptical, but Lou explains that their choices over the last months have caused them to save “a lot by not purchasing new materials to replace excess inventory” (272), though this reduction of inventory was initially “‘interpreted by our book as a loss’” (272). Lou suggests that he go with Alex to the upper divisions as his divisional controller. Alex, who thought Lou would be “harder” (273) to persuade, happily agrees. Next, Alex speaks to Bob Donovan. He offers Bob the role of division production manager, but Bob turns it down. He wants to “stay in this plant and develop it further” (275). They agree that Bob will take over for Alex as plant manager. Next, he and Bob talk to Stacey. They offer her Bob’s old job as production manager, and to their surprise, she agrees. Finally, Ralph asks to stay in his current position. His dream is to develop a system that will help Bob, Stacey, and Lou all do their new jobs well.
Chapter 34 Summary
At home, Alex and Julie drink tea and talk. He shares his fear of failure in his new position. “The only thing that kept popping into my mind is that I must learn how to manage” (282), he tells her. She reassures him, and he begins to see Julie as his “real, true advisor” (282). Alex decides to take his question to his advisory team: what does he need to know in order to be a good manager? The group throws out ideas, including conducting general fact finding about the division and touring the facilities. Alex writes all their ideas on the board, and the board, with all its red circles and words, begins to look like it has “the measles” (284). Alex argues that fact finding and report reading is “worse than just wasting time” (285) because “this overconcern with ‘the proper way to arrange things’ manifests itself in other harmful ways” (285). He asks the team what strategy they can employ to arrange the assembled facts. They suggest size, shape, and coordinates on the board, but no idea truly sticks. The meeting adjourns.
Chapter 35 Summary
At the next meeting, Ralph, who minored in chemistry in college, tells the advisory team the story of Mendeleev, the Russian scientist who invented the periodic table. Ignoring the ancient Greek assumptions that everything boiled down to four elements, earth, air, wind, and fire, scientists in the 19th century came up with a basic table listing the elements, but it had no structure or order to it. Mendeleev, using a quantitative measurement, noticed that every seventh element had “basically the same chemical behavior, though with increased intensity” (290) and arranged the elements in seven columns. He left room for elements that had not yet been discovered, but based on his measurement system, must exist. Mendeleev was ridiculed, but eventually proven correct. Alex jumps in, asking what type of order the group wants, “An arbitrary order that we superimpose externally on the facts, or […] an intrinsic order, an order that already exists there?” (292). Their next step will be to discover that intrinsic order. Alex goes home to Julie, who has been reading some Socratic dialogues in an effort to help Alex, which he deeply appreciates.
Chapter 36 Summary
At the next meeting, Stacey suggests that they determine the “goal” of a manager, just as they once determined the goal of the plant. They decide that the goal is the “process of ongoing improvement” (296). Bob balks at this, as he hates improvement projects, but Stacey challenges him to see the word “improvement” differently. Lou agrees. Maybe improvement is not, as commonly thought, intended “to reduce costs but to increase throughput” (299). Bob jumps in here, realizing that the tricky word is not “improvement” but “process.” The team must determine the steps in their process. After some discussion, they come up with the following steps:
First: Identify the system’s bottlenecks
Second: Decide how to exploit the bottlenecks
Third: Subordinate everything to the above decision
Fourth: Elevate the system’s bottlenecks
If, in a previous step, a bottleneck has been broken go back to step 1 (301)
They decide the word “constraint” may fit better than “bottleneck,” and so change that.
Chapters 33-36 Analysis
The most enduring image from this section of the novel is that of an organization as a series of links or chains. The concept of people being linked together is first introduced during the Boy Scout hike, when Alex considers tying the boys together to moderate the pace, something his son Davey later suggests, as well. This concept of links is expanded upon in this section, referring not to a method to keep pace or time, but as a symbol for the interconnectedness of individuals within an organization. Alex suggests that if they imagine each person in an organization as a link or chain, then it becomes clear that each is vital to the overall success of the organization. Ralph adds that this means the focus has to shift from cost to throughput. The value of a chain is not determined by the chain’s weight, but by its strength. Here, weight stands for cost and strength stands for throughput. When the chain is strongest—when the weakest links have been strengthened and solidified—it will be the most effective. Just as the team once searched for bottlenecks in the plant, they will have to search for bottlenecks in the organization, whether they are people or policies, and take measure to address them.
In this section, the reader sees each member of Alex’s advisory team choose to accept a new position or stay at their current job. Some, like Lou and Stacey, eagerly accept the new positions offered to them, as they feel they are ready to take on the challenge. Bob rejects Alex’s initial offer to go corporate, staying on as plant manager instead, where he feels he can best continue Alex’s work and support his legacy. Ralph chooses to stay in his current position. He feels his skills will be best utilized creating systems that will support the others in their new positions. Though Alex is surprised by most of their choices, the fact that each member of his team is truly happy with their position speaks of Alex’s capacity as a manager. Alex, with Jonah’s help, has tapped into each team member’s true potential, and helped them see where they will be most effective and productive.
