amazon review: The Gold Mine / Freddy & Michael Balle

			The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround by Michael Ballé Edition: Paperback
obsessed to lean view, aligned with TOC without hinting, August 14, 2014 This review is from: The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround (Paperback) Freddy Balle tried to even out odd parts of lean by Theory of Constraints ideas. TOC has not been mentioned in the book as usual like all other lean literature. easy reading, good reflection of resistance to change, insisting on cultural transformation.. all lean methods are still relying on forecasts which are inherently wrong. suggested system is too fragile in case of any disruption such as absenteesim, breakdown, poor quality, missing materails, varying demand,... there is no real alternative to traditional cost accounting still promotes local efficiency which is devastating flow in global view relying on supervisor's ability to assess priority of work orders asking for leveling for all variaties which may not sell any more as the demand changing no priority in improvement, too much emphasis on people. what if your people quality is not as good as described in the book ? what if your supervisors or managers are not as fast as decribed in the book to solve problems ? what if you are producing to order and demand is volatile ? what if you need an immediate action to prevent bankrupcy ? I believe The Goal or any other TOc literature is more practical and faster than lean solutions explained in this book. You can find "what to change? what to change to?" answers in TOC. You can refer lean techniques to exploit your constraint.