Winfried added to
> Eugene Taurman wrote:
>
> >Since less time in process can only be obtained by understandings he
> >process and making it work right it is also an indication of cost.
> >Improving time in process improves cost.
a good point on TOC:
> I have come
> to understand TOC as applied systems thinking: the local impact of local
> improvements, usually measured in allocated cost, does not even give a
> hint on the impact on the bottom line of the whole company.
and made a connection to TQM:
> I strongly recommend to learn about TOC. Although I found any publication
> of Eliyahu Goldratt very good reading (and you may want to start with his
> first book, The Goal, if you haven't read it yet), I recommend The Theory
> of Constraints - Applications in Quality and Manufacturing by Robert E.
> Stein as the most complete one, connecting TOC and TQM, or better:
> applying TOC in order to focus TQM activities.
There exist two other concepts about time, closely linked with these two:
Just In Time (JIT, what's in a name) and Manufacturing Resource Planning
(MRP-II, a.k.a. Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP, made famous by
companies like bAAn, Oracle, Peoplesoft, SAP and others).
Planning applications (ERP) treat time as a systems parameter, using and
calculating lead times. In ERP one trusts time to be stable and
predicatble. To check whether somebody really understands ERP i always
ask: what resource is really being planned using ERP? Is it materials?
No. Is it machine capacity? No. Is it people? No. Is it money? No. Big
silence. ... Em, it's time!
Theory of Constraints treats time as a systems constraint: a principle to
schedule the process around its bottleneck. In TOC one communicates time
in priorties. Then improve at the bottle neck only to create more output
and search for the new bottle neck. In The Goal, the first book on TOC
(then called OPT, optimized Production Technology), Goldratt (in Holland
we have a saying, "goede raad is duur", or: good advice (ratt) is costly
(costs gold)) answers the question: how can random events lead to a below
average output of a system or chain?
Just in Time treats time as a frequency or product cycle times, as has
been aptly told by Eugene in LO20852. In JIT schedules are connected,
committed to certain frequencies. The key question here is to ask for the
rythm of a process, the drum beat. There are some nice observations i've
made about the natural rythm of production processes (it is about three
minutes, the time for a song), but i will abort elabor'tion on this.
In TQM, Total Quality WHAT ... Total Quality ... WHAT ..., Total Quality
Management ("the quality of management?" "No, the management of quality."
"But i was thaught that management manages the numbers, the quantities,
not the qualities" "Well yes, so the quality is expressed in quantities
again"), time figures in the background in techniques like Statitical
Process Control. In TQM time is money, because quality is free!
Deming, founding father of TQM, (though not very amused by its name), also
said that the most important task, obligation, rule of a manager is to
drive out fear. Now, that is an interesting mission in relation to time
management.
Have a good time!
Jan Lelie
--Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM (Jan) mailto:janlelie@wxs.nl LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development - Mind@Work - est. 1998 - Designs for teamconsensus - http://www.mindatwork.nl + (31)70 3243475 Fax: idem - GSM: + (31)654685114
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