How A Fat Kid Saved A Plant Summary

Pastor Avitia
Mgmt. 434
Jim Constand
10/31/2015

How a Fat Kid Saved a Plant “The Goal” is a management-oriented novel written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a business consultant known for his Theory of Constraints. “The Goal" was originally published in 1984 and ever since, it has been revised and republished a few more times. The story takes place in the city of Bearington, a city with not much other than manufacturing plants. The main character of the novel is Alex, who is also the manager of the plant UniCo. At the beginning of this novel, it is clear that the plant is having difficulties in several aspects. The plant is struggling to meet deadlines, has excess inventory, cannot make money and most importantly, it cannot satisfy the customers. …show more content…
Alex then decided to put this problem behind his head and spend a little more time with the family. He promised his wife Julie that he would spend the next day with her and not worry about work for once. The next day his son comes into the bedroom with an excitement wearing his Boy Scout uniform. He Reminds Alex that he had previously promised him to be a chaperone for his scout camping trip. Alex had to blow off his wife one more time and went with his son to the camping site. When he gets there, Alex seems a little irritated, and it only gets worse when the scoutmaster decides to ditch Alex leaving him in charge of all the children. After they all get together, they start their hike. Alex’s new way of viewing the production line also begins. Alex sees how the slowest kid has the power to set the pace for the rest of the kids and how whoever has the lead can set the pace at which the other ones have to walk. If the person at the front goes to fast, gaps start to develop and it takes even longer to catch up, then if they were going at a slower pace since the person at the front has to stop and wait for everyone to catch up every time he gets ahead. “There was no reserve. When the kids downstream in the balanced model got behind, they had no extra capacity to make up for the loss.” Alex also notices that Herbie in this scenario, was like the NCX-10 since he is already the slowest one in the bunch and he is still carrying the most stuff out of all of them. Alex found a solution, he put Herbie at the front of the line that way he could set the pace for the rest of the kids, and they would not fall behind or get ahead and have to waste additional energy. Alex also learned that Herbie was not only naturally slow, but he was making himself even slower by

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