Herbie the Boy Scout - And Manufacturing
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Herbie happened to be the slowest Boy Scout on a crucial hike. He also carried too much. The point of the hike - and Goldratt's book - is how to speed things up and still make money (the goal).
I noticed that Goldratts's book was still on the best-sellers list years after publication and decided to re-read it to understand why. Business novels don't normally make much sense.
Using analogies, Goldratt's characters figure out their own problems and solutions for each of them. There's even a love interest under-current.
Two key questions for your operation: what is the goal of any manufacturing operation? What effect do bottle-necks have on a manufacturing operation?
I mentioned that I had read this book to a strategist for a bank. She had never heard of it. Let's just say that service operations have bottlenecks, and that sometimes they, too, forget why they are in business.
Reference
Goldratt, Eliyahu M. and Jeff Cox. The Goal. A Process of On-going Improvement. North River Press, Inc. 1984.