Book Description

Quality Management presents a unique and workable approach to the tools and methods necessary for real quality improvement. W. Edwards Deming's philosophies on quality are woven into this text. This text is one of a few quality control texts which adopt Shewhart's and Deming's view of control charts. ... Read more

Book Description

Although modern location theory is now more than 90 years old, the focus of researchers in this area has been mainly problem oriented. However, a common theory, which keeps the essential characteristics of classical location models, is still missing.

This monograph addresses this issue. A flexible location problem called the Ordered Median Problem (OMP) is introduced. For all three main subareas of location theory (continuous, network and discrete location) structural properties of the OMP are presented and solution approaches provided. Numerous illustrations and examples help the reader to become familiar with this new location model.

By using OMP classical results of location theory can be reproved in a more general and sometimes even simpler way. Algorithms enable the reader to solve very flexible location models with a single implementation. In addition, the code of some algorithms is available for download.

Book Description

Stay ahead of your competition! For many companies, achieving dramatic improvements in productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability result from applying the latest advances in planning and control systems. This thoroughly updated and revised third edition contains dozens of examples illustrating the latest key concepts for implementing profitable planning, scheduling, production, and distribution strategies, including MRP and MRP II, capacity management, and Just-In-Time techniques. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Too wordy and lengthy content to focus the points well
Even if it is taken as the popular textbook for MPC, I'd rather read the another one: "Introduction to the materials management" by Arnold and Chapman. I can not easily catch the points and feel muddled after reading long sections and words in this book. However, the examples and case studies here are worthy to have a big picture for those who are new in this field.

Instructor
Great book for all Industrial engineers. It does not get completely complicated and relates directly to common day industry practices.

A classic field handbook for manufacturing professionals
This textbook, which has been around for a number of years and has undergone a few revisions, has become the standard preparatory text for APICS tests and college-level production/operations management courses in dozens of universities.

The content is very broad - it covers almost the entire gamut of P/OM topics to some degree. That may be the only drawback to this book: it so broad in its topical coverage that there may be examples where the authors could have gone deeper in their presentation on specific subjects.

But even so, this charactertistic of being "100 miles wide and a few miles deep" works very well for readers who need a comprehensive primer on P/OM. That would include people just entering the field, or those that need to undestand the primary subject matters and areas of study, to point them in new directions.

I highly recommend this book as a foundation reference guide to your business library. Again, I know of many books that may be deeper in specific areas of P/OM, but I know of no book that encompasses so many topics and does and admirable job of presenting those topics. I would also caution the seasoned, highly-read P/OM professional in buying this book, but leave it for those newcomers to the field.

An excellent reference and resource - A "current classic"
This book is a classic: depth of information over a broad body of knowledge.

The error mentioned by another reviewer appears on p. 488: the "L-bar" term should be squared. Verifying dimensional homogeneity [i.e.that units of measure calculate consistently across the expression and result in "items" {whatever units demand is carried = units of safety stock}]) would alert a reader quickly that the product in the first term is incorrect.

Excellent book with one error!
The only short fall from this book is the formula described for calculating safety stock has an error in it. This error will lead to a significant miscalculation of safety stock and should be corrected in subsequent printings. This formula should be a Square Root of the Sum of the Squares (SRSS) and the first element is not properly squared ... Read more

Book Description

This book is about stochastic-process limits - limits in which a sequence of stochastic processes converges to another stochastic process. These are useful and interesting because they generate simple approximations for complicated stochastic processes and also help explain the statistical regularity associated with a macroscopic view of uncertainty. This book emphasizes the continuous-mapping approach to obtain new stochastic-process limits from previously established stochastic-process limits. The continuous-mapping approach is applied to obtain heavy-traffic-stochastic-process limits for queueing models, including the case in which there are unmatched jumps in the limit process. These heavy-traffic limits generate simple approximations for complicated queueing processes and they reveal the impact of variability upon queueing performance. This book was the recipient of the 2003 INFORMS Frederick W. Lanchester Prize, awarded annually by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in English. ... Read more

Book Description

Work Careers brings together a stellar panel of experts from the fields of industrial and organizational psychology, counseling and clinical psychology, social psychology, organizational behavior, and human resource management. This volume offers a comprehensive exploration of how an individual's career unfolds from early childhood through retirement. Based on the most recent findings and current research, the volume also focuses on changes in the societal and organizational contexts of career development and reveals how context shapes and constrains individual career decisions. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Manufacturing in the year 2020 will look very different from today's--in fact, in some innovative companies, it will be downright utopian. That's the thesis that Richard Morley, who invented the Programmable Logic Controller back in 1968 and now works for a techno-guru venture-capital firm called the Barn, and co-wonk Patricia Moody put forward in The Technology Machine. Much has changed in the past 30 years--technology, management theories, manufacturing processes--and anyone who hasn't been confused by these changes hasn't been paying attention. But Morley and Moody think the upheavals will have run their course four or five years into the new millennium, and after that there will be more easily graspable standards of excellence in business in general and manufacturing in particular.

The authors see 2020 manufacturing as producing products almost as quickly as a customer can imagine them, with money changing hands just as quickly. Masters of this universe--what the authors dub the Technology Machine--will be the knowledge worker, the man or woman who can perform many functions, who knows enough about multiple areas of the business to be able to cross back and forth between what used to be rigid interdepartmental barriers. Will everyone be a knowledge worker, and will every business run this smoothly? No, the authors don't see that at all. They still see a world with clear winners and losers, but one in which the former will spend less time enjoying the cozy confines of the winner's circle and more time figuring out ways to get in, or back in. It's an exciting world they lay out; and if all goes according to their vision, 2020 will be a fascinating year to be alive. --Lou Schuler ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Rantings about emergent behavior software agents
It took me a while, but I just finished The Technology Machine by Moody and Morley, and I'm sad to say that it is a poor vehicle to spread their valuable message to the world of manufacturing. Let me say at the outset that I am not an engineer, but I'm no dummy, either. I bought the book based on an intriguing review in upside (or Red Herring - one of those tech magazines).

The Good News: Some good points are made in the book about the power of approaching complex logistical production problems with the use of properly designed software "agents", each one of which having the "intelligence of a chicken" but en masse creating an environment where behavior capable of handling complex issues efficiently emerges. A powerful idea, to be sure.

The Bad news: The message gets lost in the noise of a very poorly written book - the conversational style used is way too casual for a subject this serious. It's as if this were published by a vanity press - was there no editor? Typos abound (mislabeling GM Paint Shop as GE Paint Shop on page 225, or "...president of Nypro Corporate Inc. of Nypro, a company..." - page 237 are but two examples) and the grammer is atrocious - like the rantings of an angry curmudgeon. There is way too much "consultant-speak" in the beginning of the book, and towards the end it seems to lose focus. As a result, the strength of the message is quite diluted.

I have no doubt that the authors are very smart people and that they have contributed immensely to the world of manufacturing, but in my opinion this book does them a disservice and much of the value of their message is lost.

Packed With Knowledge!
Patricia A. Moody and Richard E. Morley take a fascinating trip into the future, the not-too distant future, by exploring what manufacturing and product delivery to consumers will look like in the year 2020. By discussing past and current advances, the authors articulately present convincing arguments for their ideas with great zest. Don't worry, you won't find impenetrable technological prose here, quite the contrary. Instead, you'll find visions of point-of-consumption manufacturing, small work groups made up of people who live near their job sites and biotechnology that enables customized creation of replacement body parts. Gene Bylinsky of Fortune magazine calls this well-received volume, "a beautifully written, insightful and important new book... your best guide to success" in the 21st century. We at getAbstract recommend this book to forward-looking managers who understand that, even in the complex future, the main rule will be: Keep it simple.

When Dick Morley speaks, listen
The fact is, if you're in manufacturing, when Dick Morley speaks, you have to listen. He's got a sharp mind and an unusual style, but more gems come out of his mouth than anyone else in the industry. The Technology Machine's view into the future is well worth the read, by managers and technologists, alike. I'm hoping for a follow on that takes an even more in-depth look at some of the technology and how it will play out in the next decade or two.

"Spot On"
While there are slow spots the book is easy to read and the insights are "spot on". If we look back over the past 18 months we clearly see that technology and computers are the key to improved productivity and are the basis for collecting data and turning it into information. Information is our competative edge and will continue to provide our product and service suppliers the tools they need to continue their success.

Mr. Morley is correct.
I would like to say that 107 of Mr. Morley's 127 wildcard predictions were correct. ... Read more

Book Description

This timely and synoptic text contains the essentials of queueing networks, from the classical product-form theory to the more recent developments such as diffusion and fluid limits, stochastic comparisons, stability, dynamic scheduling, and optimization. Written by two leading experts in stochastic models and applied probability, the book is based on the authors' lecture notes accumulated over many years of teaching queueing networks. The selection of materials is well-balanced in breadth and depth, making the book an ideal graduate-level text for students in engineering, business, applied mathematics, and probability and statistics. As queueing networks have become widely used as a basic model of many physical systems in a diverse range of fields, from supply chains to communication networks, the book is also a useful reference for researchers and practitioners in industrial engineering, operations research and management, computer systems, telecommunications, and related fields. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent
Not suitable for a first course. Excellent for a more advanced course, or self study (with the right background). Covers lots of essential topics in nice, clear way, and contains many 'modern' topics that are difficult to find in any other single reference.

For the right person, well worth the $.

not easy to read
It is a textbook for a course I am taking.
I have read 28 pages. It is not easy to
read at all. It seems that the authors really want to
use as few number of words as possible. So
I have to think about and try to understand each sentence.
If I spend 1 hour on a similar other book, then I have
to spend 1.5 hour on this book for the same
amount of content.

A great book!
I was attracted to queueing theory from the aspects of
modeling and control of Internet traffic. Looking for a
book length treatment of this fascinating though old subject,
this book appears to be the most recent treatise on this subject. The choice of topics appear to be very balanced, including old as well as very recent developments. The two
very well-known authors have also a very good writing style which makes it a joy to read. I highly recommend this book for
students, researchers in statistics, OR, communication, and curious cs folks. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume presents a comprehensive first course in the Monte Carlo method which will be suitable for graduate and undergraduate students in the mathematical sciences and engineering, principally in operations research, statistics, mathematics, and computer science. The reader is assumed to have a sound understanding of calculus, introductory matrix analysis, probability, and intermediate statistics, but otherwise the book is self-contained. As well as a thorough exploration of the important concepts of the Monte Carlo method, the volume includes over 90 algorithms which allow the reader to move rapidly from the concepts to putting them into practice. The book also contains numerous exercises, many of them hands-on implementations of selected algorithms to demonstrate the application of these ideas in realistic settings. Software, freely available via ftp and portable across computing platforms, provides programs for pseudorandom number generation and statistical sample path data analysis. The software is suitable for use with the exercises as well as for more general applications. For professional mathematical scientists and engineers this book provides a ready reference to the Monte Carlo method, especially to implementatable algorithms for performing sampling experiments on a computer and for analyzing their results. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

HIGHLY recommended!!
This book gives a rigorous introduction to the main ideas behind the Monte Carlo technique and also gives many concrete examples to illustrate the important concepts. The applications of Monte Carlo are immense, and cover a wide range of fields, including finance, physics, chemistry, computational biology, geology, computational radiology, and network engineering.

The author begins, naturally, with a discussion of how to compute the volume of a high-dimensional body using standard (deterministic) methods and then shows the advantages of using Monte Carlo to find the volume. He does a fine job of assessing the errors in the volume calculation, being careful to distinguish between convergence with probability one and convergence in probability. He also explains the need for specifying confidence levels, and not just the epsilon error term, to determine the smallest sample size that guarantees an error no larger than the specified epsilon. He also gives an interesting application to network reliability in this chapter. The probability that two network nodes are connected is reduced to a volume computation which is then estimated using Monte Carlo sampling. This is an excellent example of how Monte Carlo can be used to arrive at an accurate estimate of an intractable problem. The author gives another example of this later in the chapter wherein he uses Monte Carlo methods in combinatorial probability. Also included in the chapter are some useful hands-on exercises for the reader.

The sometimes tricky procedure of generating samples from a variety of distributions is the subject of the next chapter. The author is careful throughout the chapter to distinguish between results that are exact from a formal standpoint and those that are implementable in practice. In addition, a thorough discussion of the error introduced by using pseudorandom numbers in place of sequences of uniform deviates is given. This is the only book I know of that discusses this issue with the clarity it does. The author treats the inverse transform, composition, acceptance-rejection, ratio-of-uniforms, and exact-approximation in great detail. Here again a very useful set of hands-on exercises is given at the end of the chapter.

Increasing the efficiency of Monte Carlo sampling is the subject of the next chapter, wherein importance sampling, control variates, stratified sampling, correlated sampling, and conditional Monte Carlo are discussed in detail. These methods are usually called variance reduction techniques, but the author gives an interesting argument about why this characterization is not really accurate.

The author brings in conditional sampling, or Markov chain sampling, in the next chapter. It is this approach that has made Monte Carlo such a widely used techniques in science, finance, and network queueing problems. He gives a rather quick overview of the necessary background in Markov chains, and then moves on to discuss neutron transport. It was the intractable nature of the Boltzmann transport equation that gave Monte Carlo its first real application back in the 1940's. The much-used Metropolis

method is discussed later, with close attention paid to the details. This is a section that should be read by anyone interested in Monte Carlo techniques. This is followed by a detailed discussion of Markov random fields, Gibbs sampling, and simulated annealing, all of these being heavily used in applications. And also, no book on Monte Carlo could be complete without a discussion of the three-dimensional Ising model, which is in here. The next chapter concentrates on sampling design and statistical inference, wherein the author discusses how choices of the initial (nonequilibrium) distribution, the number of steps, the number of replications, and the simulation time affect the computational and statistical efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulation. He explains very effectively these issues and also the difficulties involved with path-dependence. Network modelers will appreciate his example of routing algorithm performance. The last chapter treats in great detail procedures for generating pseudorandom numbers. The standard methods for doing this are covered, along with spectral tests and performance issues. More exotic pseudorandom generators using nonlinear recursion are also discussed, but the proofs for these are omittted. This excellent book belongs on the shelves of anyone interested in Monte Carlo techniques. The price is reasonable considering how much time it would take to collect all the results in the book from the literature. It deserves a highest recommendation.

About G.S.Fishman's book
My work concerns numerical simulations and in particular it deals with monte carlo simulations. I have found this book a good comprehensive reference to explore new numerical methods in a handy way, thanks also for the sketch of many algorithms. However, I wish to prevent anybody who thinks of breaking through these topics starting from this book, since they could be overwhelmed by the huge amount of info. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Good Introductory book
Introductory book for operations research. But after you get what OR is about, you should learn Linear, Non linear and Integer programming separately.

This book tells how to solve a Linear programming problem but not why this way? I strongly recommend Bazaara 's Lp book to know the mechanism of Simplex method. But the discussion about various OR topics like transportaion, Assignment problems is excellent.

I got interested in OR reading this so I am sure all of you will like it.

I used since 1985
The book of Taha has used it for but of 15 years in my courses of operations research has been of great utility in the career of Industrial Engineering, in the system of technological institutes in Mexico, personally I believe that professors Taha, Hillier and Liberman have been a very important support for the teaching of this part of the application of the mathematics, besides other, to all my recognition, the details if there are errors and if the contents are or non frontier of the science, is to each professor's approach that she/he teaches and she/he investigates, to make emphasis in some or others.

This book is simple with good examples
I studied just the first 6 chapters in this book. From them i can say that this book is a good one. It is simple and presents the ideas in a step by step manner. The examples are for wide applications: industries, facility layout, aircrafts, carperntryshops, resturants... It is true that in some places such as in the transportation problem the steps were not clear. Moreover, not all the possible problems and tricks were explained clearly in this chapter. But i think this guy Hamdy Taha cared more about giving you a concept of how you can apply OR in a wide range of applications in a lot of places-more than you can ever think of. To be frank i found this book not so bad as those guys say in their reviews. This book when used with another book will be wonderful

Easy to understand and helpful.
Although it is true that the book has some errors, it was very helpful to me in understanding operations research at a graduate level course without having taken the undergraduate course. The examples are self explanatory as well as the theory that's explained with them. I found the book to be one of the easiest to understand from all the books I have used during my college career.

Menual Salutions
I want to manual salutions Chapter no. 2,3,4,5,6 of Operations Research by Hamdy A Taha.

Awaiting your reply by email. Thanks. ... Read more

Book Description

Problems with multiple objectives and criteria are generally known as multiple criteria optimization or multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. So far, these types of problems have typically been modelled and solved by means of linear programming. However, many real-life phenomena are of a nonlinear nature, which is why we need tools for nonlinear programming capable of handling several conflicting or incommensurable objectives. In this case, methods of traditional single objective optimization and linear programming are not enough; we need new ways of thinking, new concepts, and new methods -- nonlinear multiobjective optimization.Nonlinear Multiobjective Optimization provides an extensive, up-to-date, self-contained and consistent survey, review of the literature and of the state of the art on nonlinear (deterministic) multiobjective optimization, its methods, its theory and its background. The amount of literature on multiobjective optimization is immense. The treatment in this book is based on approximately 1500 publications in English printed mainly after the year 1980.Problems related to real-life applications often contain irregularities and nonsmoothnesses. The treatment of nondifferentiable multiobjective optimization in the literature is rather rare. For this reason, this book contains material about the possibilities, background, theory and methods of nondifferentiable multiobjective optimization as well.This book is intended for both researchers and students in the areas of (applied) mathematics, engineering, economics, operations research and management science; it is meant for both professionals and practitioners in many different fields of application. The intention has been to provide a consistent summary that may help in selecting an appropriate method for the problem to be solved. It is hoped the extensive bibliography will be of value to researchers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Valuable reference for nonlinear optimisation
As a Grad Student , involved in Research work related to Multiobjective NonLinear programming this book has been found to be very useful in its coverage of the theory that one needs to possess to carry on this work.The good thing about it is that it addresses the Discrete world of mathematics also which gives the researcher a broader understanding.It is also nice to have one single book concentrating on various aspects on how to generate Pareto Optima solutions rather than having to go back and read up a number of papers and still be unclear about the subject.All statements are supported with proofs and that makes this a comprehensive and dependable reference.I would like to congratulate the author Dr.Meittinnen for his work and wish him good luck for all other works too. ... Read more

Book Description

Introduction to the Theory of Cooperative Gamessystematically studies the main solutions of cooperative games: thecore, bargaining set, kernel, nucleolus, and the Shapley value of TUgames, and the core, the Shapley value, and the ordinal bargaining setof NTU games. To each solution a separate chapter is devoted, in whichits properties are investigated in full detail. Moreover, importantvariants are defined or even intensively analyzed. Separate chapterscover continuity, dynamics, and geometric properties of solutions ofTU games. This study culminates in uniform and coherentaxiomatizations of all the foregoing solutions (excluding thebargaining set). Except for the Shapley value such axiomatizationshave not appeared in any book. Moreover, Introduction to the Theoryof Cooperative Games contains a detailed analysis of the mainresults on cooperative games without side payments. Such analysis isvery limited or non-existent in the existing literature on gametheory. This book is of interest to Game Theorists, Economists, Mathematiciansand Researchers in Operations Research, Political Science and SocialScience. ... Read more

Book Description

• Excel add-ins - Almost all of the examples in the text are solved with Excel, and solution files are included in the CD. ... Read more

Book Description

Quantitative models and computer-based tools are essential for making decisions in today's business environment. These tools are of particular importance in the rapidly growing area of supply chain management. This volume is a unified effort to provide a systematic summary of the large variety of new issues being considered, the new set of models being developed, the new techniques for analysis, and the computational methods that have become available recently. The volume's objective is to provide a self-contained, sophisticated research summary -- a snapshot at this point of time -- in the area of Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Management. While there are some multi-disciplinary aspects of supply chain management not covered here, the Editors and their contributors have captured many important developments in this rapidly expanding field.The 26 chapters can be divided into six categories. 1. Basic Concepts and Technical Material (Chapters 1--6). The chapters in this category focus on introducing basic concepts, providing mathematical background and validating algorithmic tools to solve operational problems in supply chains. 2. Supply Contracts (Chapters 7--10). In this category, the primary focus is on design and evaluation of supply contracts between independent agents in the supply chain. 3. Value of Information (Chapters 11--13). The chapters in this category explicitly model the effect of information on decision-making and on supply chain performance. 4. Managing Product Variety (Chapters 16--19). The chapters in this category analyze the effects of product variety and the different strategies to manage it. 5. International Operations (Chapters 20--22). The three chapters in this category provide an overview of research in the emerging area of International Operations. 6. Conceptual Issues and New Challenges (Chapters 23--27). These chapters outline a variety of frameworks that can be explored and used in future research efforts.This volume can serve as a graduate text, as a reference for researchers and as a guide for further development of this field. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent look at trends in SCM at a price
I perused this book- essentially a collection of articles/research papers by the authors that they have elaborated on. The purpose of the book (as presented by the editors) is to look at some of the current research areas in SCM. There are some outstanding chapters and topics in here for those interested in SC research on the Quantitative side. However, this is NOT a qualitative, business oriented book and so certain amount of OR knowledge is required. In fact some of the content is fairly advanced and mathematical and makes casual reading impossible. Serious readers will find much in the book though. My only gripe is the cost- I feel that it's ridiculously high for the type of audience it's intended for - primarily academia. Definitely worth it if you are into research or can afford it.

Classic, Reference, Research on SCM
This is a very expensive book and I don't have for the price-reason. However, I read it cover-to-cover and I found this book is not expensive for its price at all. As you can see from book details, six parts of this book are serious issues of Supply Chain Mamangement (SCM). The first uniqueness of this book is the combination of all six major issues in a single "thick" book. Part 1, basic concept, not only give you the basic idea and definition, but the foundation to understand other related issues of SCM. Part 2, Supply contract, is another uniqueness, since not many books talk about. The value information (part 3) is the bullwhip effect, which you can find in several journals. However, this book talks about the way to reduce the bullwhip effect as well as variation of information. The forth part is the weakest of this book (in my opinion) since it doesn't pay more attention on multi-commodity impact on other areas (which I believe it's very important). Part 5 is quite obsolate (the second weakness), but still great for reference or the first story if you are new to globalization of SCM. The sixth part is the real-meat, particulary Chapter 27. Chapter 27 compiles over 100 literatures in SCM. Over 100 papers are categorized and shown concept/methodology. I found it's very useful for literature reviews or SCM research. Chapter 27 traces back to the first journal before the "name" of SCM was coined. Chapter 23 is another meat of this book, written by Shapiro. The integration of strategics, tactical and operation are well descibed. Shapiro extended the work in this book to his book. This is one of the milestone book in this century.

Simply outstanding
If you are into Operations Research / Management Science modeling - this is a must. The most up-to-date and comprehensive source of the supply-chain theory. ... Read more

Book Description

When was the last time your company improved productivity from 20 percent to 60 percent—in only four days? Or cut inventory by 50 percent in the same amount of time? Remarkable results like these were delivered by teams of employees and those who participated in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Kaizen BlitzSM events. Using the Kaizen Blitz, employees learned how to work as a team to tackle problems from the shop floor and, most importantly, how to solve them quickly.

That's what The Kaizen Blitz can teach you. Simply translated as "continuous improvement," kaizen is a highly focused process aimed at producing incremental performance improvements in narrowly targeted areas. The Kaizen Blitz is a powerful technique that delivers breakthrough improvements throughout an organization—fast. This book will show you how the Kaizen Blitz works and how to bring the extraordinary benefits of this approach to your company. Coauthored by executives of the AME, the book provides a frank discussion of what kaizen will and won't do, the preparation necessary, obstacles to be wary of, and the results you can expect.

The Kaizen Blitz involves everyone across an organization—managers and workers alike. 44t is a low-cost, hands-on process, where all team members are equal and everyone gets their hands dirty. This thorough guide explains how your company can put together your own Kaizen Blitz teams to rapidly develop, test, and refine solutions to problems, leaving a new process in place in just a few days. It outlines how employees can work side by side to implement the best of their ideas for reaching common business goals, such as inventory reduction, capacity expansion, cost reduction, and leveraging capital investments. You will discover how the application of a few simple tools in a straightforward, common-sense approach can bring about real and profound change, provided that management is fully committed and ready to lead the process.

In addition, the authors of this important book:

• Help you determine whether your organization is ready to attempt the Kaizen Blitz
• Outline what you need for an initial Kaizen Blitz project—and what to avoid
• Explain why software package-driven process change has limitations
• Cite results and applications in top U.S. manufacturers.

If you are committed to adopting lean manufacturing; if you want an effective tool to address specific problems in your company; if you need radical change to happen now, The Kaizen Blitz will deliver beyond your highest expectations.

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence has pioneered a powerful version of kaizen—a process for achieving continuous improvement in an organization—called the Kaizen Blitz.SM This book will show you how to use this remarkable tool to deliver breakthrough improvements in your company in areas like productivity, inventory reduction, capacity expansion, and much more. You'll learn how to assemble a kaizen team that will determine solutions to your company's specific problems by designing new systems, correcting mistakes quickly and moving on, running and refining procedures, and ultimately demonstrating a new process in place in just a few days. You'll also read about top U.S. manufacturers who have successfully used the Kaizen Blitz to bring about radical, positive change. If your company is ready to achieve dramatic results by implementing new processes—not just proposed, but in place and functioning—in a matter of days, the Kaizen Blitz is the way to make it happen. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Disappointed!
Did NOT help us run Kaizen events. An overview and story.
Author has never implemented Kaizen, only told about others' successes.
Not a "how to do it" book.

"Continuous Improvement" of What?
As you probably know already, the word "kaizen" is a Japanese term meaning "to make better" with the implication that such effort should be continuous, indeed intensive and unrelenting. Since 1994, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) has developed a series of educational initiatives known as the "Kaizen Blitz." In the Introduction to this volume, Jon Brodeur observes: "We think non-consultant-driven events -- training and on-the-floor work by the experts, the hands-on employees who have experienced the power of the Kaizen Blitz -- will continue to be a welcome addition to any organization's arsenal of improvement approaches. Small- and medium-sized companies can do it as well as larger ones and they may have an advantage if operations are small enough in scope to get their arms around." However, positive and significant results can only be achieved with an appropriate combination of leadership at its highest level, acceptance (indeed enthusiasm) throughout all other levels, and tenacious involvement about attaining 20 percent to 50 percent improvement (or greater) in performance in a short time and in narrowly targeted areas. The effective Kaizen process must be top-down, initiated and sustained by teamwork, and focused entirely on doing "whatever needs to be done" ASAP. The authors of this book explain both how and why.

The material is organized within 11 chapters whose titles correctly suggest the nature and extent of coverage: The Power of AME's Kaizen Blitz: Learning by Doing; The Roots of Kaizen; Improvement Strategy: Implementing the Big Picture; Getting Ready for Kaizen; Time Prints and Takt Times; How to Tell If There Is Improvement: Adding Value, Subtracting Waste: Uncovering the Flows: Establishing and Clarifying Process Flows; Forms, Charts, and Measurements; Sustaining the Gain: Lean Leadership; and finally, Never Look Back. Throughout the book, the authors reiterate the imperative that Kaizen Blitz initiatives must be sharply focused, task oriented, results driven, measurable and -- meanwhile -- FAST. Hence the relevance of the concept of "blitz," which gained worldwide prominence prior to and then during World War II when Fascist and then Allied forces attacked enemy positions with unprecedented velocity. As the AME Kaizen Blitz has demonstrated so convincingly, the same strategy (with obvious modifications) can effectively be implemented within any organization, regardless of size or nature.

Obviously I think highly of this book because it offers a sensitive, flexible, thoughtful and rigorous program to achieve what the subtitle correctly describes as "accelerating breakthroughs in productivity and performance." If these brief comments suggest that this is a program your organization needs, I strongly recommend that all of its decision-makers read it. Then, schedule an offsite meeting during which the book becomes the agenda for collaborative efforts to formulate and implement a Kaizen Blitz appropriate to your organization's specific needs and interests. If there is a need for additional resources, I strongly suggest Breyfogle's two books as well as one written by Pande and his co-authors.

I've Never Done This Before, But Let Me Tell You How.
Three contributers, three more "experts" trying to tell us how to do something that they have never done themselves.
A lot of references and notable people and companies are mentioned, but where is the real hands-on "How to do it?"
This book is a story book and should be classified as FICTION.
This trio are writers, not "Lean Manufacturing" implementers.

Good second book.
Mr. Laria has compiled an interesting book that certainly should be read by those contemplating using kaizen blitzes. It is enlightening and when combined with the "Kaizen Event Implementation Manual" makes a complete, theory to actual application set.

What about the detail?
The book is a good overview, but lacks the details necessary to implement. It is obvious that the authors have never implemented Kaizen themselves! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Classical MBA litterature
In 1990 this book was revolutionary. Today, it is mostly interesting as the first book on the subject. Nobody in todays (business) world can have missed out on the concept that time is (or can be) a competitive advantage.

If you have missed this basic fact, do read this book, it explains in rather boring terms why it is so.

Personally I think they put to much emphasis on time as a competitive advantage, and tend to disregard other factors, equally important. A more relevant reading would in my opinion be D'Aveni's Hypercompetition, that takes the concept to its logical conclusion, which Hoult and Stalk misses.

Unfortunately, neither of the authors are very entertaining writers, especially as this book is usually mandatory/recommended reading in most MBA classes on strategy.

In conclusion, good, once revolutionary, but today mostly over-rated.

The Best Articulation of the Case for More Speed
Today's readers will think that this book is simply stating the obvious. That shows how much influence the book has had. Prior to the book's publication, most people felt that "getting things right" was more important than speed. This book points out that speed can actually be helpful in getting things right by encouraging you to improve your management processes so you do things right the first time.

Many companies have had trouble implementing this concept in the way it is articulated. They simplify their process, but may not improve it. This may mean that new products arrive in the market that are not really ready for the customers. That can be all right if you can quickly fine-tune the products in beta tests and the customers have that expectation because you are giving them so much benefit anyway. If you do this with me-too products that don't work, the results can be disastrous in terms of damage to your company's reputation and customer relationships.

The authors do not spend enough time on helping people understand how to improve their processes, and how to create more speed without killing stress on the people involved. For many companies, this book can be dangerous. I think this book could use a new edition that would address these two areas in more detail.

On the other hand, if you have any doubts about the potential benefits from speedier action, you should read this book. It will change your mind using excellent examples.

Have a speedy read!

superior insight on how to change a cost focus to time
Simply put, an oustanding book that has all the nuts and bolts needed to allow a company to transition to a time based focus from a cost based one. Easy to read, the logic is perfect. A must buy to have on your shelf (better yet ... on your desk). I read it first when I received my MBA ... read it again this last week .... and gave copies to top management I know around the country. ... Read more

Book Description

As someone responsible for getting—and keeping—your manufacturing facility on track, do you ever ask yourself: Why do we always seem to be in a state of mass confusion? Is it possible to ship the product on time? How do we meet our customers' demands without promising too much and delivering too little? Why are costs continually rising, and what can be done to curb them? Written by James Correll and Norris Edson, two principals with Oliver Wight, LLC, this comprehensive resource, now completely revised and expanded, provides the answers you need for Gaining Control of your operation.

To illustrate the essential elements that go into the smooth and effective running of a manufacturing facility, the authors take you inside the fictitious Hayes Tractor Company. By following its manager, Brian Miller, you'll observe all-too-recognizable problems—from meeting orders in a timely fashion to securing the right people and parts —learn what can be done to solve them, then apply the solutions to your own situation.

Gaining Control shows you the detailed steps necessary to gain control by matching plant capacity to production needs using a combination of tools, such as Just-in-Time, MRP II, and finite scheduling, as well as new innovative trends like lean and agile manufacturing—all of which can be used to obtain confusion-free, efficient operations in a single or multiplant environment.

Packed with sample calculations, helpful charts, and useful tables, here's where you'll find complete information on:

• Constructing routings and work centers
• Mastering dispatching and scheduling
• Controlling work flow
• Scheduling to capacity constraints
• Applying rough-cut capacity planning
• Continuous improvement

By implementing the tools and techniques shown in Gaining Control, you'll know exactly what your plans are and have the confidence that you'll hit them on target.

Proven strategies for Gaining Control of your manufacturing facility

"Throughout our professional careers . . . we have been troubled by the apparent inability of manufacturing departments to get control of their operations. . . . Our objective in writing this book is to help you understand what you have to do to get the real benefit from MRP II and Lean Manufacturing. The answer is in gaining control of the factory floor, often referred to as 'closing the loop,' and this book shows you how." —from the Introduction

Now revised and expanded, Gaining Control addresses the many questions and potential problems that can arise when running a manufacturing facility. Written by two experts in the field, it shows managers how to gain control by matching plant capacity to production needs by implementing a combination of tools, such as Just-in-Time and MRP II. Along with new material on finite scheduling, this Second Edition provides complete coverage of current manufacturing trends, including lean and agile manufacturing. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An excellent guide for capacity management in small manufc
This straight forward guide is an excellent reference book for small to mid-sized manufacturers or workshops. While it will not give you all of the answers towards capacity planning, it should provide you with enough reference information to develop your own system tailored towards your specific operation's needs. ... Read more

Book Description

The organization of individuals into networks and groups is of fundamental importance in many social and economic interactions. Examples range from networks of personal contacts used to obtain information about job opportunities to the formation of trading partnerships, alliances, cartels, and federations. Much of our understanding of how and why such networks and groups form, and the precise way in which the network or groups structure affects outcomes of social and economic interaction, is relatively new. This volume collects some of the central papers in this recent literature, which have made important progress on this topic. ... Read more