| | |  | Total Productive Maintenace | Home » » » Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance - A Business Novel | | | | | | | Description: | | Millions of readers remember The Goal, the landmark business novel that sets forth by way of story the essential principles of Eliyahu Goldratt's innovative methods of production. Now, from the AGI-Goldratt Institute and Jeff Cox, the same creative writer who co-authored The Goal, comes VELOCITY, the book that reveals how to achieve outstanding bottom-line results by integrating the world's three most powerful continuous improvement disciplines: Lean, Six Sigma, and Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Used by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps to dramatically improve some of the most complex, logistically vast supply chains in the world, the VELOCITY APPROACH draws on the strengths of all three disciplines to deliver breakthrough performance gains. In physics, speed with direction is velocity; in business, the application of VELOCITY means your organization can achieve operational speed with strategic direction to outmaneuver competitors, gain loyalty with customers, and rapidly build sustainable earnings growth -- in as little as one or two business quarters. Dee Jacob and Suzan Bergland, two princi-pals of AGI, have been teaching the concepts, techniques, and tools of VELOCITY to major corporations, including Procter & Gamble, ITT, and Northrop Grumman, for years. Now they unlock the door for you to see how to apply their insights and methods to your organization -- be it business, not-for-profit, manufacturing, or service based -- in order to shorten lead times, slash inventories, reduce production variability, and increase sales. Writer Jeff Cox returns with the vivid, realistic style that made The Goal so readable yet so edifying. Thrust into the presidency of the subsidiary company where she has managed sales and marketing, Amy Cieolara is mandated by her corporate superiors to implement Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in order to appease a key customer. Assigned to help her is LSS Master Black Belt Wayne Reese, installed as her operations manager. But as time goes on and corporate pressure mounts, Amy finds she has to start thinking for herself -- and learning from everyone around her -- and she arrives at the series of steps that form the core of the VELOCITY APPROACH. VELOCITY offers keen insight into the human and organizational factors that so often derail growth while teaching you proven, practical techniques for restarting and revving up the internal engines of your company to reach new levels of success. Colorful characters, believable situations, and everything from dice games to AGI's "reality tree" techniques make this business novel a vital resource for everyone seeking to deliver business improvement in these challenging economic times -- and far into the future. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Dee Jacob | | Hardcover:
| 320 pages | | Publisher:
| Free Press | | Publication Date:
| December 29, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1439158924 | | Product Length:
| 9.27 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.24 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.14 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.07 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.13 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.26 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 21 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 21 customer reviews )
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7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Fixing GodzillaMar 01, 2011
By K. Newcomer
Velocity is similar to the goal as they write about Theory of Constraints, but become more contemporary by combining lean and six sigma. Albeit, the book is mostly about Theory of Constraints as I don't recommend buying this if you just want to learn about six sigma techniques.
The story was a touch dry, but I still found it interested and wanted to see what the ultimate solution would be for the company Hi-T. The main character Amy is likeable and you end up rooting for her. They of course introduce another character similar to Jonah from The Goal who provides clear thought (in this book Tom Dawson). The other managers are split on how they want to fix the problems and embracing the change that is needed.
The book takes you through at a high level some of these disciplines:
Lean - Creating value for customers by way of products and services with minimum waste at optimal speed in perfect balance with market demand.
Six Sigma - Identifying and eliminating defects, errors, and anything quantifiable that is unwanted by customers.
Value Stream - Laying out the stages of a process or a project. Diagramming the flow and the various branches of input.
Takt Time - Time available to work divided by demand - the time available to make the product divided by the units needed.
Theory of Constraints - Holds that every system - business system or manufacturing system - is made up of resources that each have varying limits. Performance of the total system is constrained by whatever resource is most limited or the bottleneck of the system.
While other concepts are discussed in various detail the book explains throughput well. This is the rate at which inventory is converted into completed sales, or cash. This is the language every company knows and needs to understand. This concept can be translated to service or manufacturing (and retail even).
Overall, I enjoyed reading about how this company fixed the problems they were having and embraced (reluctantly to start) some new ideas and some changes to how they have worked for years. Good read with a lot of takeaways about lead, six sigma and Theory of Constraints.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 TOC, Lean, 6 Sigma. There is no need to choose one over the others!Dec 29, 2009
By Dr. Howard D. Meeks
As a university professor I want students to recognize what is being practiced in industry to learn how to improve. Many of the students have had internships where TOC, Lean, or 6 Sigma are used but never all 3.
Velocity will help people get past the assumption that you have to choose between TOC and Lean and 6 Sigma improvement methodologies. It shows a clear way of integrating them for improved bottom line results. Therefore, I am going to require this business novel as part of the logistics course that I teach.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in business management at any level of an organization.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
VelocityJan 01, 2011
By gacleader1
Velocity is a must read for anyone practicing Lean Six Sigma. As a newly trained Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, I have been very excited about my new found knowledge, only to find that many people from various organizations are less than thrilled with the Lean Six Sigma approach. After reading this book, I now understand what it is that has caused so many problems for companies which endorse these tools, and how these tools are misused.
Rather than attack Lean Six Sigma, the authors instead have written a novel about the implementation of these tools into a business, speaking about the positive and the negative during the growth process. What the book makes clear is that it is not Lean Six Sigma that causes the problem, rather the attempt of a company to create a culture in which Lean Six Sigma is used in every corner of a business, essentially creating islands of excellence within various workgroups. Through reading, we understand that removing waste and variation within different areas of a company does not necessarily affect throughput in a positive way; we must concentrate our efforts where they are most needed, not arbitrarily to every facet of an organization.
Velocity makes it clear that a perfectly balanced system is not only rare, but also not necessarily in the best interest of throughput. Velocity teaches us the importance of having a constraint within a system, rather than the accepted idea of removing constraints. It also teaches us how to optimize the constraint while still maintaining it, to achieve the best possible flow through the process.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
The penny gameSep 04, 2010
By Brian
I'm a young project manager who has been lucky enough to set up a few production lines in my career. I loved this book! I only put it down once between starting to read and finishing it. Then I last stayed up all night, literally to 4am simulating the penny game on excel (much to my wife's dismay). Velocity has a lot of great tools and methods, but for me the greatest take-away from this book is not to fall into the trap of being a true believer of any system no matter how great it is or appears to be.
I love how Velecity set lean and six sigma as a tool kit to be used in certain circumstances. I only wish that TOC had been framed in the same sense.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Close enough for Rock & RollJul 05, 2010
By Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey
This is an entertaining book, as are most of the TOC business novels. I was pleased to see Jeff Cox return to the scene (so to speak). BTW, Dee was my instructor at AGI in 1998 for Project Management (where I met Dr. Meeks -- Hi Howard!), and I know her to be an exceptional educator. Susan I have met briefly at various times at TOC events and know her to be passionate about the subject.
So, I was pleased to learn of this effort. I read it in about six hours on my iPod touch (Kindle app) within a span of 24 hours. So, when I say it was a page turner, trust me! One con: all kindle books should sell for $9.99 or less IMNSHO, so if I did not have a free gift card, I would not have bought it yet. Also, the diagrams are not readable on the iPhone/iTouch.
If you are excited about TOC, then this is a must own title. As one reviewer pointed out (Vishal), it really lacks any depth for Six Sigma folks. It offers a lot more for the Lean (TPS) crowd. Which describes me, so I might like it better than the slide rule crowd. Would I give this book to a Lean practitioner? Yes. As a conversation starter. It won't do your job of convincing Lean folks to take you seriously, but you should not expect it to. I love how Dr Lisa promotes the opening of a Mafia Offer, in that you should ask the prospect if this data is relevant to the challenges they are facing (paraphrased, of course).
Same for this book. Ask your Lean friends to look it over, and ask them where they agree and where they disagree. This might be the key to getting them to read "The Goal" if they haven't already. Or "Critical Chain." Or, for those in Supply Chain roles, "Necessary But Not Sufficient" (NBNS). Or "Purple Curve Effect" for folks trying to make a difference "right where they are!" But I digress...
One final negative branch, again, as others have suggested, the Thinking Processes as documented are a little weak. As I have moved on to Dettmer's 3rd Generation (now called "The Logical Thinking Process" and the title of his best work yet, and a chapter in the new TOC Handbook), that is not an issue. When NBNS came out, Goldratt said he did not realize how many people would read it that had not read "The Goal" first, therefore, it caused some confusion. That a concern here too.
Bottom line: I like it. It adds value to the conversation. The authors deserve all the praise that gets sent their direction.
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