Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance - A Business Novel [Hardcover]

Dee Jacob (Author), Suzan Bergland (Author), Jeff Cox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cox (The Goal) and consultants Jacob and Bergland collaborate for this unholy marriage of business strategy and fiction. Amy Ceolara is distressed when it's announced that her company, Hi-T Components, is becoming a subsidiary of the competitive corporate monster Winner Inc. For the flimsiest of reasons, Amy is named interim president and is responsible for turning the flailing company around through a mix of three quality management and improvement programs: (1) Six Sigma, which calls for reduction in variation and thus the elimination of errors and defects, (2) Lean, which produces a reduction in waste and (3) the Theory of Constraints, which claims that every system is made up of resources that each have varying limits, and the performance of the total system is constrained by whatever resource is the most limited. Though her team initially struggles, victory is eventually hers. Terrible puns (characters are named Peter Winn and Dr. Viktor) and frequent complimentary reference/product placement of the authors' previous book The Goal team up with dry writing to create a truly stultifying experience. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"AGI's VELOCITY APPROACH enabled us to get control over the uncertainties of our repair and remanufacturing business, leading to significant improvements in our overall performance. The changes we made to the way we manage our business positioned us to not only survive but to thrive in what could be called the worst recession since the Great Depression." -- Carl Coslow, President, Republic Industries International

"As we transformed the entire Naval Aviation logistics system, our leadership team decided that 'AIRSpeed,' our continuous process improvement program, would combine best business practices -- Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints. This strategy not only enabled Naval Aviation to reduce turnaround times 40 percent and work in process nearly 50 percent in areas applied, but enhanced the quality of life of our sailors and marines." -- VADM Walter B. Massenburg, USN (Ret.), former Commander, Naval Air Systems Command; Architect and Chief Operating Officer of Naval Aviation Enterprise

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (December 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439158924
• ISBN-13: 978-1439158920
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fixing Godzilla, March 1, 2011

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K. Newcomer (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance - A Business Novel (Hardcover)

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 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TOC, Lean, 6 Sigma. There is no need to choose one over the others!, December 29, 2009

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Dr. Howard D. Meeks (Ames, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance - A Business Novel (Hardcover)

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 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Velocity, January 1, 2011

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gacleader1 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance - A Business Novel (Hardcover)

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.