Factory Physics

Factory Physics, for Managers, How Leaders Improve Performance in a Post-Lean Six Sigma World, by Edward S. Pound, Jeffrey H. Bell, and Mark L. Spearman, PhD, McGraw-Hill 2014

The most important manufacturing book to come out in the past year, Factory Physics is a tough slog, but comprehensive and sensible ---the word on philosophy - vs science - driven approaches to hard-core manufacturing.  See this:

    "While Lean and Six Sigma have seen tremendous success in reducing waste and improving profits in many companies, success is not always ensured.  Indeed a recent Wall Street Journal article indicated that 60 percent of Six Sigma projects did not yield the expected benefits.  The record for Lean is worse, with only 2 percent of projects achieving their anticipated results.  The low hit rate for Lean projects may be due, in part, to the huge number of kaizen events... that are attempted by many companies.  Another reason is that Lean promotes improvement by imitation.  'This is what Toyota did, so this is how you must also do it!'  Managers do not understand how the TPS works, only that it worked for Toyota.  Then they apply it on a business very different from Toyota's, and it does not always fit. 

The authors cover the basic production issues -  inventory, responsiveness, pull systems, Bills of Material,  scheduling, IT, quality -  in the midst of what they call a "confused landscape" that gives managers access to the science behind production management.   Not all managers will be able to pick and choose what techniques they need for their particular operations environment, and as we know, many choose not to! - but this book gives the manufacturing professional choices.  It's about time.

Mill Girl Verdict:   A+++++++++