A Process Of On-Going Improvement (POOGI) - Part 1

{This series was co-written with Brad Stillahn.}

Do you remember Herbie from the book “The Goal”? He was the slowest Boy Scout on the hike. The hike was taking much longer than expected, and the only way the troop could finish the hike sooner was to find a way to make Herbie go faster. The troop put Herbie at the front of the line, distributed the contents of his backpack and finished the hike at a much faster rate.

Of course, the hike was an analogy for improving a business, and made the point that is always someone or some thing is restricting the business from achieving more of its goal. For a business, that goal is usually “to make more money now and in the future”. If your business is not making an infinite amount of net profit, someone or some thing is holding you back. Do you know what it is?

The Goal was written 25 years ago, yet it is still a best seller worldwide. It is estimated that 20% of business people have read it, more than any other business book. For every copy bought, an estimated 4 people have read it due to it being recommended and passed on. Over 5% of businesses worldwide have implemented some of the common sense methods described in The Goal with significant results*:

70 percent reduction in lead time
65 percent decrease in cycle time
44 percent improvement in due-date performance
49 percent deduction in inventory
63 percent increase in revenue

...to be continued.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

*Source: The World of Theory of Constraints, Vickie Mabin and Richard Balderstone, Lucie Press, 1999

The Goal is leading the votes for Best Business Books of All Times. It has 5x more votes than the next closest book. Go to http://800ceoread.com/bookvote/ to cast your vote!