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SMART Manufacturing Goals Don’t Work

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By Dr Lisa Lang, TOCICO Certified Expert and developer of the Velocity Scheduling System

Originally published January 7, 2025 | Updated August 2026

TL;DR: Manufacturing goals fail for three specific, predictable reasons, not because SMART goals are the wrong framework. This article breaks down why 90% of executives miss their business objectives and the 3 reasons manufacturing goals go unmet. Skip to the end for one question that can get you back on track before the year runs out.

Key Takeaways:

  • Manufacturing goals don’t fail because they’re not SMART. They fail because SMART only defines the destination, not the path.
  • Most goals miss for one of 3 reasons: you don’t know specifically what to change, you don’t know what to change to, or you don’t know how to cause the change.
  • 90% of executives miss their business objectives quarter after quarter, year after year (Economist Intelligence Unit).
  • The fix isn’t a better goal. It’s a roadmap that identifies the systems, processes, and measures standing in your way.
  • Behind on this year’s goals? One question can get you back on track before the year runs out.

Annual Goal Setting and SMART GoalsSMART Goals for Manufacturers - Are you missing your goals year over year? Do problems persist?

SMART manufacturing goals don’t work.  Goals are necessary but not sufficient to drive results.   I’ll explain why (3 reasons) and what you can do instead.

It’s that time of year when we’re setting personal and business goals.  As a Theory of Constraints expert and someone who worked with Dr Eliyahu Goldratt, author of The Goal book, it probably would not surprise you that I think goals are necessary.  However, SMART goals for manufacturers are NOT sufficient to drive results. SMART Goal Definition - SMART Goals for Manufacturers DON'T Work

Just because you have a goal, even if it is a SMART goal, that is NOT typically enough.  Particularly in our complex businesses.   Have you ever had the goal to increase revenues or profits in your business but did not hit the goal even though your goal was Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound?

According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey of 500 senior executives, 90% don’t accomplish their business objectives – quarter after quarter, year after year.

A SMART goal to increase organic profits is easy to define so why might it be difficult to achieve?  Have you had a profit goal before that you have not achieved?  Why not?  Before you continue reading, think about your answer.Quote: "In athletic events, the winners and losers had the same goal, but their training and preparation were different." Dr Lisa Lang

This is worth understanding.  Being able to set and achieve your annual, 3 and 5-year business goals could have a profound impact on you and your employees.

When I was a frequent Vistage speaker on Maximizing Profitability, and I would ask “How many of you are working on the same problems or goals as last year”?  More times than not, all the hands would go up.  And often, they were working on the same things for many years.  Problems never (or rarely) got solved.

But whether you have been successful at achieving some, all or none of your goals in the past, my aim in this article is to help you increase the likelihood of reaching your goals in the fastest time possible.  And like many of our articles you can expect some counterintuitive suggestions along with several A-HAs.

3 Reasons Manufacturing Goals Are Not Met

In my experience in talking to business owners and working with over 550 custom manufacturers, I think the reasons can be categorized into 3 types:

1.    “We don’t know SPECIFICALLY what to change.”

Simply having a SMART goal around profitability does NOT mean you know what to change.  Your systems and processes are perfectly producing the profits you are currently achieving.  If you want better results, you need to understand how and why you’re achieving your current results.  And I mean a DEEP understanding.  And because manufacturing is more complex than setting personal goals or even some other business goals, it’s a challenge.

You not only need to understand the negatives or problems in your current environment but how and why they propagate.  Knowing that set ups are taking too long, or that you have too much WIP (or it’s growing), or that lead-times are increasing, on-time delivery is slipping, or that overtime is up, or that cash flow is down, is NOT deep enough.

Those are effects of your current systems and processes.  If you try to tackle those problems in isolation, you’re not getting to the root cause and will have no/limited impact.  This is the same reason so many hands went up signaling the same problems year after year.

Without deep understanding, you’re guessing.  You probably have as many opinions on what needs to change as you have people.  Guessing is akin to playing Whack-A-Mole.  It’s extremely time consuming, expensive, and morale busting.

The good news is you don’t have to guess.  In Theory of Constraints, we use rigorous cause and effect logic to understand the one or few things that need to change to reach your goals and what we call your future reality.

Which system is more complex?

The number of things that you need to change are fewer than the negatives or problems in your current environment because of the interdependencies.  Many of them are related and by understanding those relationships you uncover the fewest, most impactful changes necessary to achieve your goals.

2.    “We don’t know what to change to. “

Just like there are no shortage of ideas on what to change, likewise there are even less shortages of ideas on what to change to.

We should do