Friday, January 18, 2013

A 4.5 star review for Epiphanized.....

Here is the latest review of Bruce and my book Epiphanized.  We both thank this reviewer and will take his suggestions to heart as we continue working on our sequel.

Bob
Reviews > Epiphanized: Integrating Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma
Epiphanized by Bob Sproull
 

by    
13308925
's review
Jan 15, 13

4 of 5 stars false
bookshelves: toc, lean
Recommended for: Change Agents
Read from December 30, 2012 to January 14, 2013, read count: 1

Prerequisite - You must read The Goal prior to reading Epiphanized.

I loved the format of the book. Half novel, half textbook. I think the authors did a great job of developing the story line to introduce, to me, several new tools and then gave good descriptions of the tools in the second half. I would have given this 4.5 stars if Goodreads had a half rating.

Two things really stopped me from putting this book at a 5 star rating.

1 - I did find the several punctuation errors a bit of a distraction. As I understand, this will be revised in a future edition; however, this should not stop anyone from reading immediately.

2 - The Finale of the novel seemed too abrupt. I cannot get into without spoiling, but it was analogous to a movie with a rough ending, you leave shaking your head saying..."What just happened".

Personal reflection: I was trained in traditional TPS/Lean school of thought and, until very recently, have been very closed minded about TOC & (to a lesser degree) Sigma. One thing that I remember clearly from Toyota Way is, the author emphasizes, "you cannot copy Toyota you must create your own way". I really am starting to see how several of the TOC practices NEED TO BE incorporated into my Lean Thinking for greater results and speed. As I plan for my FY13 improvement activities and weigh their benefits, I am asking things like; "Will this project be locally optimized or will it increase Throughput?" and "If they are local improvements are they at the drum?" I really plan on spending some time getting to better know the CCPM method.

Great book in general will sit on my shelf next to the goal and will be referenced often.

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