Velocity

Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance

By: Dee Jacob, Suzan Bergland, Jeff Cox

Narrated by: Linda Weber

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Millions of readers and listeners remember The Goal, the landmark business novel that sets forth 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.

Dee Jacob and Suzan Bergland, two principals of AGI, show you how to apply their insights and methods to your organization 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 entertaining 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. But as time goes on, and corporate pressure mounts, Amy 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.

©2010 The Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute and Jeff Cox (P)2010 Simon & Schuster

the Goal is just better

It is just the same as the goal but with no content.

Great stuff!

Interesting novel! The material is great & put forth in a entertaining way! More Please

Okish

ok, but by far not as good The Goal. Story is cut short and not fascinating enough.

Good goal follow up

The performance was good and the storyline made sense. The only difficult part was sometimes combining all the different concepts became convoluted. Great book and has concepts I can apply immediately to my career.

Excellent audio book. Great book.

What made the experience of listening to Velocity the most enjoyable?

Linda Weber's Narration as well as the easy to read writings of Dee Jacobs. I even enjoyed Dee's Introduction.

What did you like best about this story?

The lessons I learned about management.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Amy C, the main character, finally found the connection between LSS and TOC and how it can work to improve production standards. "We nailed the Herbie!" The moment Amy finally understood B. Don's statement.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and I did do so.

Any additional comments?

I am only canceling for one reason. I feel as though, we are being charged twice. I am sure there are definite financial reasons.

A subscription fee or the price of the books, would be nice. Especially if you only purchase a book or two every couple of months, we still have a subscription fee. Without a subscription fee, I would purchase more books.

Other than that I believe the service is great. Yet I will need to sell some books in order to afford the service.

Thanks :)

Audio books should be required to supply images

I listen to educational books on my commute to work. Without the images to support the audio lessons, a lot is lost.

A business novel!

I bought this audio book in the company of 2 others, “The Peter Drucker Lectures” and “The McKinsey Mind.” I was not aware it was a novel at that time. I am not un-happy with the result.
I got a light exposition of the classical big business Lean Six Sigma implementation in comparison and contrast to “The Theory of Constraints” set in a mostly manufacturing context. This novel is another example of that long history of novels that were written by the likes of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley that explore and/or expound on a particular philosophical point of view. It also has the advantage of being that apparently rare sub-genre the “business novel.”
If you have no exposure to either Lean Six Sigma or the Theory of Constraints this is probably the most painless way to get an introduction to either. You will need to do significant additional reading on both topics before you will be able to appreciate all the details that are both included and left out of any of the 3 methodologies.
While Lean and Six Sigma are often lumped together and do “get along” with each other pretty decently as I understand it, Lean has its own quality control methods that are not the same as Six Sigma. So if the improvement in quality that comes directly out of the manufacturing re-design of Lean are not sufficient then the quality improvement methods of Six Sigma can be applied.
As far as I can understand it, it is the Lean manufacturing re-design towards a “balanced” production line/system and the Theory of Constraints aimed towards a designed Constrained production line/system are where the two theories part in their goals to improve production. I will leave you to decide which one is supported by “the evidence.”
I will note that a WSJ article I just googled says that LSS is currently failing 60% of the time. I am going to assume they are talking about the classic top-down big business implementation that has huge up front costs and the results that take years. The version of LSS described in the novel is the classic top-down big business implementation. There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent article for the TOC available under “TOC failure rates” so I can’t compare. So let me offer principles: “You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own data” Senator/Professor Patrick Moynihan and “Speak truth to Power” (lots of researchers to lots of decision-makers).

"The Goal" is far better

Any additional comments?

This book is a pale shadow to "The Goal" of which I believe it is supposed to be a continuation.. In this book they introduce Lean and Six Sigma concepts, but fail, in my view, in effectively showing how these concepts work in coordination with the Theory of Constraints. Also, as was "The Goal", this is put forth in storytelling form. However, there is far too much emphasis put on the personal stories in this book, which does not allow room to get down into the meat of how to implement the operational changes proposed.

Excellent

As a proponent that lean, six sigma, and the theory of constraints alone have gaps. I am pleased to see those gaps exposed. Worth the time.

Linda knows how to tell a story. Good Book, but..

If you could sum up Velocity in three words, what would they be?

Good story, but the I wish it had more on Six Sigma and on the Theory of Constraints.

Would you recommend Velocity to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes.

Have you listened to any of Linda Weber’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

She is very entertaining.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

almost 1 setting would be fine