Captured by Plamen T.

THE GOAL
A Process of Ongoing Improvement
THIRD REVISED EDITION
By
Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
With interviews by David Whitford,
Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business

North River Press

Captured by Plamen T.

Additional copies can be obtained from your local bookstore or the publisher:

The North River Press
Publishing Corporation
P.O. Box 567
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(800) 486-2665 or (413) 528-0034 www.northriverpress.com First Edition Copyright © 1984 Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Revised Edition Copyright © 1986 Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Second revised Edition © 1992 Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Third Revised Edition © 2004 Eliyahu M. Goldratt
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goldratt, Eliyahu M., 1948The goal: a process of ongoing improvement
I. Coxjeff, 1951-. II. Title
PR9510.9.G64G61986 823
ISBN: 0-88427-178-1

86-12566

Captured by Plamen T.

1

INTRODUCTION
The Goal is about science and education. I believe that these two words have been abused to the extent that their original meanings have been lost in a fog of too much respect and mystery. Science for me, and for the vast majority of respectable scientists, is not about the secrets of nature or even about truths.
Science is simply the method we use to try and postulate a minimum set of assumptions that can explain, through a straightforward logical derivation, the existence of many phenomena of nature.
The Law of Conservation of Energy of physics is not truth. It is just an assumption that is valid in explaining a tremendous