The Goal: a process of Ongoing Improvement

DW: Did you conduct such an experiment? And if so can you tell us
about the results?
EG: Fortunately, I don’t have to initiate such experiments, since many
readers of 
The Goal
are kind enough to write to me and share their
experiences. From the letters that I received over the years let’s pick one that
fits our conditions. Since we are discussing relevancy, it must be a recent
letter. It should be from a person who implemented TOC in a plant that is
part of a large enough organization, an organization that is using black-belts.
And it should contain comparisons between that plant and all other plants of
that company.
Judge for yourself if this letter fits our bill perfectly.
Dow Corning Corporation
Healthcare Industries Materials Site
635 N. Gleaner Road
Hemlock, MI 48626
May 20, 2004
Dear Dr. Goldratt:
I wanted to share with you what we have accomplished within our
organization by using the tools presented in your books, “The Goal” and
“It’s Not Luck.”
When a colleague gave me a copy of “The Goal,” the plant at which I

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work was in a similar situation as Alex’s plant in the book. At that time,
in 1998, our plant’s on-time delivery was approximately 50%. We were
carrying over 100 days of inventory and we had customers on allocation
because we could not meet the demand for orders. In addition, our
management had given us six months to turn things around, or else. I
was the new production team leader for approximately thirty percent of
the plant sales and forty percent of the plant production employees. My
units performance was similar to the plant’s overall performance.
As I read “The Goal” I quickly realized one person alone could not solve
the problems within my unit, or within our plant. I ordered several
copies of “The Goal,” and my colleague and I distributed them to our
production manager, plant manager and manufacturing and quality
engineers. Everyone was eager for a solution to our problems.
Within my unit we identified the bottleneck and began to focus our
resources there. Our plant is a non-union facility and many of the
workers were also interested in what we were doing. I ordered copies of
“The Goal” for everyone who worked for me. By the time the six-month
ultimatum came, my unit and another had started to make significant
changes, and the plant was spared any ill recourse. However, the
expectation was that we would continue to improve. For the five years
that followed, we continued to work on breaking our bottlenecks. When
one moved, we attacked it again. We got pretty good, and could
determine where the bottleneck would occur next. Eventually, the
bottleneck moved outside our plant as depicted in “The Goal.” However,
we knew this would happen ahead of time and had already begun the
indoctrination of our sales and marketing group. 
I recently moved out of production, but before I left, the results within
my unit were: cycle time reduction of ~85%. Operator headcount
reductions of 35% through attrition; no layoffs were needed. Work in
process and finished goods inventory down ~70%. On-time delivery
went from ~50% to ~90% and the number of material handling steps

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were cut by over half. Our plant, and business unit have done very well
too. And me, I received a promotion while in that position, and a
compensation award. Dow Corning, like many other corporations, has
downsized multiple times in the past five years. During each one, our
plant, and business unit were affected very little or completely passed
over. I am convinced that if we hadn’t read and followed the methods in
“The Goal” and “It’s Not Luck” the situation would be much different
today. There is still much to do, as our business unit is the only one to
really have embraced “The Goal.” I am hoping in my new role in Six
Sigma that I can further share your tools and methods. Thank you for
signing the book Dr. Sirias has forwarded to you on my behalf. I am
honored.
Sincerely,
Robert (Rob) Kain P.E.
Six Sigma Black Belt
Dow Corning Corporation
Life Sciences/Specialty Chemical Business