Critical chain

Critical chain

CRITICAL CHAIN
by E.M. Goldratt

CRITICAL CHAIN
Chapter 1
"This board meeting is adjourned," announces Daniel Pullman, the domineering chairman and CFO of Genemodem. The
elegant conference room hums with conversation as the directors start to depart. The last quarter was the best in the history
of the company. The directors are pleased, but no one is overly excited. They have come to expect it. For the past six years,
almost every quarter has been better than the preceding one.
"I want to have a word with you," Pullman tells Isaac levy, smiling and continuing to shake the hands of the external board
members. When everybody else leaves they sit down.
"Have you had a chance to read McAllen's final report'?" Pullman asks.
It was Levy, the executive vice-president of engineering, who had insisted on hiring a consulting firm to do an in-depth
analysis of Genemodem's product development. The analysis was not restricted just to engineering, it covered the entire
process. Starting with examining the way they decide on the features of a new modem, through the development process, and
of no less importance, examining the way the new design is handed over to production and marketing.
Not that they had been complacent. Embarking on new technologies, new tools, even new management methods is the norm
in their company. You cannot be among the leaders otherwise. Nevertheless, Levy insisted on bringing in experts from the
outside. "There must be many things that we take for granted," he had claimed. "Things that only outsiders are able to see."
Pullman supported him fully. Actually, no one really objected.
It was no small effort, and it did not come cheap, but at last, a week ago, they had received the four-hundred-page report.
"I really think they've done a very good job. There are many things they point out that we overlooked. We got our money's
worth and then some," Levy says.
"Agreed. The report contains many good things. But I am concerned with what...

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