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Rating: 
Summary: What's the point?
Review: Mr. Schonberger hoists the flag of what he calls 'Customer Focused Principles'- with all due respect to Covey's 'Principles' -and waits to see who salutes. He is still waiting.
With much name dropping, plenty of abbreviations - see, I know the jargon, many cited 'conversations' - see I am scholarly, and many random and pointless narratives about various companies - see, I am really scholarly and connected, Mr. Schonberger manages to waste the readers time while managing to obfusticate the principle of Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing. I came away from reading the book saying 'So what is the point'.
Rating:
Summary: Good and Not So Good Ideas; No Focus Whatsoever
Review: Schonberger hits on several strong manufacturing ideas in this book, but overshadows these good points with a severe lack of focus. One comes away from this book with lots of buzzwords floating around in one's head, but no idea where to begin applying any of them, or what form such an application would take. The mantra of the book appears to be "do everything," when what a lost manufacturing manager needs is help on what are the (very few) key points of control in a system, how to identify them, and how to use them to powerful effect. The author would have you believe that "customer service" should be the goal of production. Nonsense. Customer service is a very important tool that is a means to an end: cash flow. If cash flow could be best guaranteed by ignoring customer service, then companies would be foolish to do otherwise. As it happens, customer service is a vital key to production, but only so far as it directly or indirectly supports the financial engine that drives a company. Evidence: it would be trivial to design a production system that supports the customer better than any in the world and that loses all viability in month. This book gets a couple of stars due to the presence of a few good thoughts, but the author seems to have no clue what to do with them, or which are most critical. For better results, go straight to the source with Deming, or get some focus with Goldratt.
Rating: 
Summary: Codifies manufacturing excellence
Review: When Dick Schonberger first showed us a glimpse of the research that was going into this book, I could not wait to see "the real thing." This book is, like all his work, an important and major examination of what makes a manufacturing organization excellent. Built from "the numbers', as well as years of observations, Schonberger's work allows anyone - consultant, practitioner, teacher, executive - to understand the critical points at which a group defines its capabilities. HIs comprehensive References and Bilbliography show that he gets around; his overall vision shows that he sees where good process is headed. Read this book for a measured look at manufacturing progress over the past ten years or so.
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