The full title of this book by Dee Jacob, Susan Bergland and Jeff Cox is
Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance – A Business Novel
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a 4 Stars rating. This means it is Good to Very Good.
Here is my book review.
TOC is at risk but can it fight back?
Jeff Cox co-authored “The Goal” with Eli Goldratt. While Goldratt was the genius behind TOC, Cox was responsible for the tight, fast-paced story. Together this made that book gripping intellectually and satisfying to read.
He brings the same skills to bear here. The narrative is an improvement on many of these constraints based business novels.
The book tells the story of Lean Six Sigma being introduced to a business already using the Theory of Constraints. In fact the TOC plant had already suffered at the hands of someone focused on short term cost cuts and productivity improvements.
Without wishing to spoil the story, there are problems. The project focuses on things that make no difference and the move to balance the production from process to process is a disaster because of random variables.
The book repeats the penny game from The Goal which demonstrates changes to output (or throughput in TOC terms) and work in progress.
It also develops the cause and effect relationships between the symptoms back to root causes. Then from the problems through to effective changes. This is a gentle introduction to the TOC Thinking Processes which were introduced in a book called “It’s Not Luck“.
I’ve held back from the fifth star because I believe books like this should end with a summary of the key lessons.
This is a book to read after The Goal, whether you’re interested in applying TOC or Lean Six Sigma. It’s most appropriate for manufacturing businesses but the book does cover a side business which provides expert services.
You can buy the book from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
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