This book was published in 1983 – I purchased it 2012 and I didn’t read it. I’m pretty sure I started it and thought because it was about manufacturing it didn’t apply to me or my business. That was of course very shortsighted.

The hardcover version that I own is not available on Amazon and has only been reviewed once. Interestingly it has been reviewed on Goodreads almost 1000 times and rated almost 20,000 times with an average rating of 4.31.

As always I went to the bad reviews first. There was 1 – 1 star review, a very long rant about what a useless book this is. I found nothing useful in this review although it seems 119 other people did. This reviewer has 20 followers. I don’t think I’ll be adding myself to the list.

I started this read on March 27th and it’s part of my themed read on Measurement and Forecasting.

Introduction

The author lets us know the book covers three basic ideas.

  1. An output oriented approach to management i.e. he takes the principles of manufacturing and applies them to management.
  2. The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his supervision (he identifies this as the most important sentence in the book.
  3. Can business use whatever it is that motivates an athlete to put out his “personal best” consistently.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Takeaways

  1. Build your process around the limiting step i.e. the most difficult, sensitive, expensive, critical step.
  2. Fix problems at the lowest value stage possible.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Takeaways