Podcast #206 – Ed Pound, “Factory Physics for Managers”

My guest for episode #206 is Ed Pound, co-author of the book Factory Physics for Managers: How Leaders Improve Performance in a Post-Lean Six Sigma World that was released in April. It is, of course, a new version of the original Factory Physics textbook that I used in college and was the subject of Podcast #25 with Prof. Mark Spearman.

Ed is the chief operations officer of Factory Physics, Inc., a company started by Spearman.

In the podcast, we talk about the term “Factory Physics” (including the origin of the term) and what it means, including understanding the relationships between capacity, throughput, inventory, and variability. Ed also brings up great points about “dogma” versus manufacturing science, including dogma that can get companies in trouble, including:

• Thou shalt have no finished goods inventory
• Thou shalt have single piece flow, always
• Thou shalt always have a moving assembly line

We also talk about the subtitle of the book and what he means by a “post-Lean Six Sigma world” (it doesn't mean a world without Lean or Six Sigma). It's a great discussion and I hope you'll enjoy it, even if you don't work in factories. The lessons and ideas are certainly applicable.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/206.

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also listen via Stitcher.

Related links:

• MIT paper on “Little's Law”
• Prof. Wally Hopp website

Feedback & Comments:

If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 993-0630 or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.