Breaking the Cost Barrier

The dramatic account of how a team of aerospace professionals attacked production variation to slash costs by 25%

Variation Management-the identification and control of variation in production processes-is critical to today's cost-conscious aerospace industry. Now, the story of how its underlying framework was discovered by a team of professionals in a cooperative effort with a range of organizations, from McDonnell Douglas and Pratt & Whitney to Westinghouse and even the U.S. government, is chronicled in the innovative and technique-packed Breaking the Cost Barrier.

This fast-paced, highly entertaining book gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how you can design and implement a system to successfully control production variability-and leverage the power of that system for your own organization. It describes what many of the components of a variability control system are and what goals they should achieve, then demonstrates from the inside out why each comprises an important part in the puzzle.

MRP ... JIT ... kanban ... cellular manufacturing ... statistical process control ... Breaking the Cost Barrier gleans the best from each of these techniques to arrive at a cost-cutting program unrivaled in controlling production inefficiency-and cutting production costs-as we cross into the 21st century.

Praise for Breaking the Cost Barrier

"The authors' basic point-begin by stabilizing cycle time variation-is an excellent one and a great antidote to the pervasive 'kamikaze kaizen' campaigns going on across the industry."
-Dr. James Womack, President, Lean Enterprises Institute, and coauthor of Lean Thinking and The Machine That Changed the World

"If you are into manufacturing improvement, be sure to check Breaking the Cost Barrier's analysis on the importance of vigorous implementation of any improvement regimen."
-Robert W. Hall, President, Association for Manufacturing Excellence

"Breaking the Cost Barrier spoke to my manufacturing soul. I believe the authors have hit the mark with their identification of cycle time, inventory, and manufacturing cycle time variation as key metrics for success. . . . I intend to make this book a part of the TC2 reading list and required reading for our manufacturing group."
-Michael T. Fralix, Corporate Vice President and Director of Industry Services, TC2