Push-Line/Pull-Line
Simulate the difference between batch and lean approaches. Continue reading Push-Line/Pull-Line
Tag Archives: lean
Review – Theory of Constraints
Theory of Constraints: What is this thing called Theory of Constraints, and how should it be implemented? Eliyahu Goldratt. North River Press, 1990. Let me give my rare thumbs down review (usually I just ignore the ones I don’t like). Continue reading Review – Theory of Constraints
Lean Manufacturing and Software
Is writing software more like manufacturing cookies or more like designing cookie cutters? It’s easy to wish that we could develop software like a factory stamps out cookies, but software has a design or creation element that is missing in that analogy. Lean manufacturing is a different approach than a traditional assembly line, and offers some lessons for software development. Continue reading Lean Manufacturing and Software
Review – Lean Software Development (Poppendieck and Poppendieck)
Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit. Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck. Addison-Wesley, 2003. This book considers software development from the perspective of lean manufacturing, as popularized by Toyota. In lean approaches, there is a sense in which there is a Continue reading Review – Lean Software Development (Poppendieck and Poppendieck)
Review – Thinking Beyond Lean
Thinking Beyond Lean, Michael A. Cusumano and Kentaro Nobeoka, Free Press, 1998. The subtitle is “How multi-project management is transforming product development at Toyota and other companies,” and that pretty much says what it is. Once you have lean approaches, Continue reading Review – Thinking Beyond Lean
Review – Results from the Heart
Results from the Heart: How Mini-Company Management Captures Everyone’s Talents …, Kiyoshi Suzaki, Free Press, 2002. It’s kind of hard to classify this book. It’s from a lean manufacturing consultant, but it’s geared to the whole organization. Suzaki argues that Continue reading Review – Results from the Heart
Review – Managing the Design Factory
Managing the Design Factory, Donald Reinertsen. Free Press, 1997. Reinertsen comes at managing design from the manufacturing product development side, but a lot of his tools seem appropriate for software product development as well. “When we begin a design we Continue reading Review – Managing the Design Factory
Review – The Goal
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox. North River Press, 1992 (2nd rev. edition). A combination love story and manufacturing treatise. Inventory and high utilization are signs of sub-optimizing the whole system. (Reviewed Dec., ’02)
Review – The Machine That Changed the World
The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production, James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. HarperCollins, 1991. This book is the story of lean production in the automobile industry, which the authors see as the Continue reading Review – The Machine That Changed the World