The Goal
Autoren: Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Improving the flow and finding the bottlenecks.
Mentioned in the book The Phoenix Project I wanted to read this book because it was the first to combine a story and knowledge. The same management principles are explained for manufactoring as those explained in The Phoenix Project for IT.
It is all about the flow. Keeping the inventory low, the flow high and concentrating on the bottlenecks. All improvements aside the bottlenecks are useless. Not every working center needs to be busy all the time.
I enjoyed reading the story of the plant manager implementing these changes in his company. Goldratt is as a good story teller as a management counsultant.
From the book
Five Focusing Steps
- IDENTIFY the system’s contraint.
- Decide how to EXPLOIT the system’s constraint.
- SUBORDINATE everything else to the above decisions.
- ELEVATE the system’s constraint.
- If in the previous steps a constraint has been broken Go back to step 1, but do not allow inertia to cause a system constraint.
The goal of an individual or an organization should not be defined in absolute terms. A good definition of a goal is one that sets us on a path of ongoing improvement.
It is no wonder that Lean is now strongly associated with small batches and setup reductions techniques. (S. 345 )
The Phoenix Project
Autoren: Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford
Story und Managementwissen in einem. Hammer!
A novel that made my hat spin and think. A novel that was a page turner, at least to the middle. A novel that got me in touch with a lot of management principles. What more would you expect from a book!
We follow Bill Palmer on his job promotion as VP of IT operations. Getting hundreds of Mails, being overwhelmed by the amount of work, being a firefighter with his department on server crashs and the like, which keeps them busy for most of the time and being in need of just one brainy in the department: Brent. Than the wise guy Erik shows up, explaining him in his very own style how to transform his department. He is getting the ideas… – and it’s just great to follow him along.
Aus dem Buch
„WIP (work in progress) is the silent killer. Therefore one of the most critical mechanisms in the management of any plant is job and material release. Without it, you can’t control WIP.“ p. 89 – [reference: Theory of Constraints, Lean Producation and Total Quality Management].
„Any improvements made anywhere besides the bottleneck are an illusion.“ p.90 [reference: Theory of Constraints]
„The first way helps us understand ho to create fast flow of work as it moves from Development into IT Operations, because that’s what’s between the business and the customer. The Second Way shows us how to shorten and amplify feedback loops, so we can fix quality at the source and avoid rework. And the Third Way shows us how to create a culture that simultaneously fosters experimentation, learning from failure, and understanding that repetition and practice are the prerequisites to mastery.“ p. 91
What is work in IT? 1. business projects, 2. internal IT projects, 3. changes.. p.110
„We’ve got to get all this knowledge into the hands of people acutally doing the work:“ p. 121
„Unplanned work… – It might even be better to it anti-work, since it further highlights its destructive and avoidable nature. … Now you must continually eradicate your largest sources of unplanned work, per the Second Way.“ p. 161
„David H. Anderson developed techniques of using a kanban board to release work and ontrol WIP for Development and IT operations.“
„Being able to take needless work out of the system is more important than being able to put more work into the system….Remember, outcomex are what amtter – not the process, not controls, or, for that matter, what work you complete.“ p.164
„In order to have mutual trust, you need to be vulnerable.“ p. 184 [reference: Five Dysfunctions Of A Team, Patrik Lensioni]
„…every work center is made up of four things: the machine, the man, the method, and the measures.“ p. 209
„Improving daily work is even more important than doing daily work.“ p.212 …
„Mike Rother says that it almost doesn’t matter what you improve, as long as you’re improving something. Why? Because if you are not improving, entropy guarantees that you are actually getting worse,…“ p.213
„Studies have shown that practicing five minutes daily is better than practicing once a week for three hours. And if you want to create a genuine culture of improvement, you must create those habits.“ p. 213