Customer Reviews

Manufacturing for Survival: The How-to Guide for Practitioners and Managers

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a manufacturing professional with over 20 years of experience, I find Blair's book extremely insightful and current. Blair's book embodies his practical knowledge of manufacturing while incorporating today's business environment philosophy. Manufacturing for Survival helps to integrate the value of supply chain management into all aspects of the manufacturing environment. It is an invaluable tool that I frequently refer to. Very well written and practical --- I wouldn't be without it!

This book couldn't have been better if Moses himself had brought it down from the mountain along with the Ten Commandments. I started to highlight the most important and relevant points but, unfortunately, began to run out of ink well into the second chapter. Despite the technical nature of the subject matter, the book is easily read and digested. The formulae and calculations are presented in a manner that is quickly comprehended by both engineers and nonengineers alike. This is one great book!!!

...Perhaps five stars are not enough.

I have an M.S. in Logistics and a nine-foot shelf of text books. When I need an answer I reach first for Williams' book, it is often the only one I need. I have only two complaints:
1. The binding - for these prices the binding should not be so fragile (I'm on my second copy).
2. References to ISO-9000 as a "Quality" standard. While most pursue ISO-9000 to help improve their quality, it is a "Documentation" standard, and it is possible to become ISO-9000 certified to build garbage.

For these two reasons (and the fact that Amazon won't let me) I can't give the book the seven stars it otherwise merits.

Manufacturing for Survival is a fundamental yet easy-to-read text on manufacturing that every production manager can lean on for great advice. The book thoroughly covers all of the key shop floor best practices such as setup time reduction methods as well as traditional manufacturing textbook concepts such as MRP. So the book is a rare combination of the practical and theoretical.

This book is the Cliff Notes of Manufacturing. Tired of the Grad texts that babble on for hours about case studies from the early eighties? This author says more in twenty pages than most do in five hundred. It removes the hundreds of pages of padding to leave you with clean, structured lists of information. This text will get you through any Production Ops course, and it gives extremely helpful information on most areas covered in the CPIM examinations

I am not dumb, you are not dumb, but as Blair says in his introduction to this book- It takes more than hard work and common sense to run a manufacturing facility. My copy of this book is dog eared and warn out from use. Everytime I reference a section, I learn something new. Clear and simple explanations to complex and difficult challenges we all face in today's competitive environment. This book should be in every practitioner's back pocket.