Poor reading by main character

The main character was reading like he was chasing a train. Very monotonous voice as well. Really let the story down

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Exhilarating and insightful - an inspiration

This book is a masterpiece. A work of art. If you have a business with any kind of assembly line it’s a must read. If not it’s a beautifully written story with tension and pace and excitement that will teach you things you didn’t know.

Such as how Toyota overtook theUS car industry in the 80s and how those ideas originated with Henry Ford, whose insights had been forgotten by several generations of managers and accountants who didn’t understand the goal.

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

An Excellent Listen

This is one of those books that will stay with me for the rest of my working life. Whilst the story is based on a manufacturing plant, and how their focus on efficiency was ironically killing their profits, it also has so many overlaps into a whole host of different industries. Since I've read it I always ask myself ' What is the goal here?' whenever I am in a new project or even a business meeting, is it just to complete a project to time and cost? What is the bigger picture, how does this feed into the overall goal of the organisation? One part that really resonated with me was when two workers were idle next to a machine, and their supervisor had them start moving boxes from one side of the factory to the other - for what purpose? Just to they can be 'perceived' to be busy rather than contributing to the goal of the plant. It made me realise that we need to have flex when it comes to capacity, and this is just as true in knowledge work as it is in manufacturing.

The narration is first rate and the voice acting was immersive and sympathetically executed. Is this a must read? Absolutely, few books have had the impact this has on my perspective of management.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Very Enlightening!

This book has highlighted so many things to me. Having worked in financial services for 19 years without this knowledge, it has dawned on me that I could have really benefitted from hearing/reading this book 10 years ago when I first wanted to get into management. I'm not much of a reader, so the audiobook, with all it's character voices, sound effects etc was incredibly easy for me to consume. 17 hours in three days! The storyline was very relatable for me as someone who has grown up in a family that is always looking to move forward and improve. Also as part of a mixed class family with expectation to be married, have a family, work hard and move up the ladder. The only let down in the story for me and what I didn't like, was Alex Rogo's perspective of his wife's behaviour in the early stages of the book. It's painful to listen to how he treats her, how he talks to her, but I guess that it might have been more normal behaviour for men back in the 80s. Maybe that is more of a moral issue than a downside to the book. I hope it highlights to many people out there, that our relationships need work, and our families and partners need our time, just as much as our businesses do. There are clear lessons to be learnt throughout this book and they can be applied to any business we might work for or own. You have to take a step or two outside your normal zone to really assess what is going on, but I believe that most people can learn a huge amount from this book and the way it has been structured with the story. I'll probably be recommending this book to everyone I ever speak to.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

How to increase your production throughput by optimising flow

Nice story introducing various concepts around bottlenecks and flow that can be used to increase throughput by multiples. Thought provoking and interesting, but maybe needs some in depth thinking in order to put it to use in a different environment.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Manfacturing in all sectors

It doesn't matter your sector, the goal is all about improvement. This book brings to life a manufacturing plant and the analysis and changes to make that can be applied to any business. Want to make your business or the business you work for more successful, then understand your goal.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Gripping fantastic book masterfully narrated.

Great novel from am outstanding mentor. I didn't even realise I was giving it a third listening to.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Great intro to lean

works well in audiobook format. Great intro to the fundamentals of LEAN. The case study was more difficult to go through in audio format, would benefit from supporting documentation.

Great way to present the ideas

I really loved the way the principles were told vía a story, the narration was good too and made it an enjoyable listen

Outstanding performance and production

The lessons of the book could have been written on 2 sides of A4, but that would have conferred 1% of the impact and retention that this narrative confers. It is much better to understand a few solid points extremely well and memorably, rather than a list of hundreds which you don't truly understand. The author highlights this inductive approach to learning in the introduction. It's effective and enjoyable. The performance is outstanding. Multiple voice actors and background sound effects. Very well done indeed. I will remember every single salient point made in this book due to the narrative.