Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, and Structure for Speed

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Excellent pre-lean introduction to improving development

Cross functional alignment is the key . . .

Time is worth more than it used to be

Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, and Structure for Speed
Christopher Meyer
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Today, tens of thousands of companies are struggling to become "time-based" competitors, inspired by such corporations as Motorola, General Electric, Citicorp, and a myriad of others who have cut production time in half—or more. But until now, the literature has focused on the theory and philosophy of fast cycle time, rather than the tools and techniques for implementing it. Here, for the first time, Christopher Meyer, an internationally recognized expert in cycle time reduction, presents a step-by-step blueprint for transforming traditional companies into fast cycle competitors.

Meyer argues that fast cycle time is achieved not by working faster, but by aligning the organization's purpose, strategy and structure. He demonstrates how the product development cycle must become a learning laboratory in which the four continuous elements "Design, Fabricate, Assemble, and Test" are analyzed with the intent to improve strategy in the next business cycle. Analyzing strategy and core processes enables management to detect and correct problems earlier, and leverage knowledge for improved innovation and increased value for customers.

Employing an ongoing case study, Core Products, Inc., throughout the text, Meyer shows how to redesign the organization for manufacturability and assembly, how to implement multifunctional teams that work, how to analyze and map critical cycle time interdependencies such as "co-location," and how to measure the impact of cycle time on business performance. Meyer's practical approach provides a simple methodology for organizations to deliver products to customers rapidly, accurately, and reliably.

"Chris Meyer interrelates many pieces that we have all read about in different places into a coherent guide to making it happen. Ironically, as Meyer shows, implementing fast cycle time means almost the opposite of what most American managers are inclined to do...Many years of practical experience have shown Meyer and his colleagues the wisdom of a paradox—that to speed up you often have to slow down."

—From the Foreword by Peter M. Senge

Customer Reviews:

Excellent pre-lean introduction to improving development.......2007-09-29

Fast Cycle time was written in 1993, though his ideas are very much inline with the "modern" lean ideas (concept introduces in 1990). The book explains how to improve cycle time in product development and how this will lead to a general improvement within the company.

The book consists of two parts. The first part describes the fast cycle time concepts. It introduces cross-functional teams (which the author calls multifunctional teams). Most importantly it links the speed of development to the speed of learning since product development is equal to learning (very much inline with Al Ward's "Lean Product Development" ideas). It links his ideas back to the learning organization theories and shows how these concepts are an absolute must when speeding up product development.

The second part is about the implementation of these concepts. First it talks about making a clear strategy so that the organization can focus. After that, one of the main topics of the book, is the multifunctional team chapter. This introduces the concepts and talks about the different organizational models. Also it'll go over the typical development of multifunctional teams. The next chapter covers process redesign. This chapter is very similar to lean's "value steam mapping" ideas (well, exactly the same to be precise). Though Chris Meyer uses process maps instead of value stream maps. The book ends with some guidance on implementation of these ideas.

The book was well written and very clear. There is a balance between examples and theory. The CP (Quantum?) example wasn't worked out that well. Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It's one of the only books which has a strong focus on cross-functional teams and it's relation to cycle time and organization learning. Recommended.

Cross functional alignment is the key . . ........2002-11-26

Many of our clients are struggling with life at internet speeds. If you haven't read this classic on speeding up your organizations product and service life cycle, now may be a good time to do so. Praise for this book, as listed on the back of the dust jacket, come from Ford Motor Company, Quantum Corporation and others with Ed McCraken, CEO of Silicon Graphics Computer Systems stating that this is; "A must read for executive who seek speed and competitiveness."

Mr. Meyer utilizes an "ongoing case study" to make his points concerning FCT processes. This approach lends credence to his positions and gives the book a solid feel of practicality. In addition, frequent use of diagrams helps the reader visualize the organizations, processes, information flow, and cross functional activities of organizations. The layout of the book is logical and provides for continuity as Meyer builds on each preceding chapter.

The book is filled with excellent observations and pithy sayings: "The responsibility for strategic alignment rests with senior management." "Any organization leader who seeks to 'empower' people should first create a clear strategic context that enables others to use the power with which they were born." "Research demonstrates there is a negative correlation between economic growth rate and the number of Nobel prizes won." "A sustainable FCT capability can be achieved only by learning faster, not by working faster."

Time is worth more than it used to be.......1999-08-06

This book provides a compelling blend of theory and practical advice on how to move quickly. I found many things that used combined Balanced Score Card techniques focused on cycle time with the author's real world experience - which is considerable.

The book is aimed at managing the culture and mindset of the organization, not a particular project. A worthwhile read if time-based-competition applies to your business.

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Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, and Structure for Speed
Christopher Meyer
Manufacturer: The Free Press / Maxwell MacMillan Canada / Maxwell MacMillan International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PAYTH0

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Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy, & Structure for Speed,
Christopher, Meyer
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O94O1I

Book Description

This book will help network engineers take better advantage of ATM technology for their transport network planning. ATM Transport and Network Integrity offers useful information for network planners to design and evolve cost-effective networks. The book focuses on methods of network design to ensure proper network function under stress, such as congestion or failure. ATM Transport and Network Integrity discusses the most efficient methods of support for broadband service and control transport in high-speed transport networks, network services, and transport architectures and control and management. It covers in detail the differences between ATM and STM transport and how these differences affect transportnetwork planning and engineering.

Key Features
* End-to-end networking, including information, signaling and control transport
* Broadband network integrity, including traffic management for network congestion and traffic restoration for network failure conditions
* Pioneer of SONET and ATM self-healing networks
* Case study description and implications
* Good insights for future IP-over-ATM network design and planning

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ATM Transport and Network Integrity
Noriaki, Yoshikai
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHDFBA

Book Description

Two influential essays: "Ether and Relativity" (1920) discusses properties demanded of the ether of space by the theory of relativity; "Geometry and Experience" (1921) describes the limits within which the Euclidean or other practical geometric systems can be regarded as valid in connection with the concept of a finite universe.

Download Description

One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above all other sciences, is that its laws are absolutely certain and indisputable, while those of all other sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger of being overthrown by newly discovered facts. In spite of this, the investigator in another department of science would not need to envy the mathematician if the laws of mathematics referred to objects of our mere imagination, and not to objects of reality. For it cannot occasion surprise that different persons should arrive at the same logical conclusions when they have already agreed upon the fundamental laws (axioms), as well as the methods by which other laws are to be deduced therefrom.

Customer Reviews:

Two Fascinating Lectures - Will Appeal to Physics Students.......2004-08-01

This 56-page Dover edition offers two lectures by Albert Einstein, "Ether and the Theory of Relativity" and "Geometry and Experience". The lectures are described as "devoid of complicated equations and abstruse terminology". Nonetheless, while the reader does benefit from Einstein's clarity of thought, these lectures do require careful attention. The first lecture presumes familiarity with physics; the second is largely a discussion of non-Euclidian geometry and is easier reading.

Ether and the Theory of Relativity, an address delivered on May 5, 1920 at University of Leyden:

Einstein recounts how the concept of ether originated and subsequently evolved. After some discussion of work by Hertz, Maxwell, Lorentz, and Mach, he notes that it became possible to take a position that ether does not exist. However, using an analogy of water waves, he explains that although the special theory of relativity does forbid us to assume ether consists of particles observable through time, the hypothesis of ether in itself is not in conflict with the special theory of relativity. Only we must give up ascribing a motion to it.

While it may seem superfluous to postulate a homogeneous, isotropic, ether-medium, Einstein contends that to deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities at all. He then argues that according to his General Theory of Relativity "empty space" in its physical relation is neither homogeneous nor isotropic, compelling us to describe its state by ten functions (the gravitational potentials). There can be no space or part of space without gravitational potentials.

After noting that elementary particles may be considered condensations of electromagnetic fields, he concludes that our current view of the universe presents two realties which are completely separated from each other conceptually, although connected casually, namely gravitational ether and electromagnetic field, or as they might be called, space and matter.

Geometry and Experience - an expanded form of an address to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin on January 27, 1921:

Einstein begins by posing and answering why mathematics, a product of human thought, is so admirably appropriate to describing reality. In exploring limitations associated with applying Euclidian geometry to relations between rigid bodies, Einstein introduces other axiomatic systems, including Riemann's geometry. He argues that there are difficulties in applying geometry on the sub-molecular level, but it is less problematical to extend the ideas of geometry to cosmic orders of magnitude.

After some clarification of the meaning of a finite universe and an infinite universe, he devotes several pages to illustrating how to visualize a finite, three dimensional universe that is unbounded. Einstein concludes this lecture with an enthusiastic comment: "My only aim today has to show that the human faculty of visualization is by no means bound to capitulate to non-Euclidian geometry."

Experience vs Hypothesis.......2000-05-24

This is the first book of I have read in which Einstein wrote directly rather than the many reiterations of his works. Sidelights on Relativity is a two part book of lectures in which he gave in 1920 and 1921. The first titled "Ether and the Theory of Relativity." Einstein explores the concepts given by Newton, Maxwell and Lorentz of the ether arguing the universe is not mechanical in nature. The other argument is the purely physical aspect in which the mechanical perspective seems to propose what is seen is that exists, and/or can be measured and proven to exist. That "space without ether is unthinkable," that is, the effects of spce/time gives credence to ethers existence just as "the undulatory surface forming the boundary between water and air alters the course of time." This, then, creates the contradiction. The second lecture is titled "Geometry and Experience" in which Einstein argues Euclidean geometry by noting the difference of experiencing and proposing laws of earth-measurement. He demonstrates this through the plane and the globe asking the reader to imagine the globe and a plane. While the plane is infinite in all directions, similarly one can fill the plane up infinately. This is not an all together accurate picture of our universe. Rather if we imagine a sphere and fill that up, we realize only a finite amount can fill up the space.

At this point, I will say that my understanding stands at a finite point in which it would be only arrogant for me to claim I understood the entirety of the book. Nonetheless, I found this book completely readable, mostly due to the fact that there are no formulas to follow. My knowledge of relativity is limited and I have given you what I believe I understand. Its a short book with the writing clear and concise and logical; which surprised me hearing stories about Einsteins genius in which he is unable to explain in laymans terms. Highly reccomended!

Professor Einstein.......2000-04-28

I read This book and I would like to buy it. However I do not use Credit cards, only Debit cards, Best Regards, Professor Gerardo Paredes F

Book Description

An entirely new work, this compact, authoritative dictionary is an indispensable reference for veterinary students, animal researchers, farmers involved in the livestock industry, and veterinarians. With over 7,000 entries, it spans the disciplines of animal anatomy, physiology,
endocrinology, pharmacology, pathology, and genetics, and includes a wealth of information on animal husbandry, livestock breeds, veterinary practice, and animal welfare codes. The dictionary is illustrated in the classic tradition.

A compendious dictionary of the veterinary art: Containing a concise explanation of the various terms used in veterinary medicine and surgery: also, a ... as well as those of other domestic animals

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A compendious dictionary of the veterinary art: Containing a concise explanation of the various terms used in veterinary medicine and surgery: also, a ... as well as those of other domestic animals
James White
Manufacturer: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown [etc.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Veterinary Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books

A compendious dictionary of the veterinary art: Containing concise explanations of the various terms used in veterinary medicine and surgery : also, a ... as well as those of other domestic animals

Average customer rating:

A compendious dictionary of the veterinary art: Containing concise explanations of the various terms used in veterinary medicine and surgery : also, a ... as well as those of other domestic animals
James White
Manufacturer: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Veterinary Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books

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Concise Veterinary Dictionary
Robert S. Hine
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OM3VUU

Book Description

Military obligations rested lightly upon the Filipino people for much of the period that America occupied the Philippines, but Filipinos could enlist in the United States Army and Navy, attend the service academies at West Point and Annapolis, or join military organizations restricted to duty in the islands such as the Philippine Scouts, Philippine Constabulary, Philippine National Guard, and the navy's insular force. In the 1930s, the Philippine government established its own armed forces. Throughout much of this time, the U.S. army also kept a substantial portion of its troop strength in the Philippines.

This annotated bibliography of nearly 700 titles highlights the extent and variety of the Philippine-American military experience from the conquest of the islands by the United States in 1902 to the defeat of Philippine and American forces by the Japanese in 1942. The bibliography includes memoirs and biographies of Filipino and American officers and enlisted men (from MacArthur to Ferdinand Marcos), unit histories, army post and navy base histories, medals and insignia books, and the most extensive list of prisoner-of-war memoirs yet published. Annotations address controversies such as the widely disparate estimates of American deaths on the Bataan Death March and include previously unpublished information, such as casualty figures for American and Philippine forces in 1941-1942.

Book Description

From horned devils to greedy money lenders, images have been used as weapons against Jews for thousands of years. Even photojournalist social reformers of the early twentieth century reinforced derogatory stereotypes of Jews as wretched, immoral, and dirty. Little attention has focused, however, on the ways in which Jews themselves have attempted to counteract these views and to construct their own ethnic and political identities.

In The Jewish Self-Image in the West, Michael Berkowitz examines dozens of visual renderings from the fin-de-siècle to the beginning of the Second World War to argue that Jews have exercised some control over representations of their own national communities and aspirations. In the decades before the Holocaust, organized segments of Jewry enthusiastically appropriated modern media in order to exert a greater influence over their public images.

Presenting photographs and graphic images by Jews as attempts to disrupt or undermine prevailing perceptions, Berkowitz reconstructs the development of the Jewish self-image in the West over a crucial half-century.

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The Jewish Self-Image in the West.(Review) (book review): An article from: American Jewish History
Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Manufacturer: American Jewish Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008JBSCM
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Jewish History, published by American Jewish Historical Society on September 1, 2000. The length of the article is 822 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Jewish Self-Image in the West.(Review) (book review)
Author: Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Publication: American Jewish History (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: American Jewish Historical Society
Volume: 88 Issue: 3 Page: 419

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Natural duality theory is one of the major growth areas within general algebra. This text provides a short path to the forefront of research in duality theory. It presents a coherent approach to new results in the area, as well as exposing open problems.

Unary algebras play a special role throughout the text. Individual unary algebras are relatively simple and easy to work with. But as a class they have a rich and complex entanglement with dualisability. This combination of local simplicity and global complexity ensures that, for the study of natural duality theory, unary algebras are an excellent source of examples and counterexamples.

A number of results appear here for the first time. In particular, the text ends with an appendix that provides a new and definitive approach to the concept of the rank of a finite algebra and its relationship with strong dualisability.

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