Comments for ProChain Blog

Comment on Fever Chart Regions by Larry Leach

Larry Leach — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:26:08 +0000

Nice practical explanation!

I (as usual) take a more analytical approach to using the fever chart as a control chart. The spirit is the same. Perhaps I’ll put my take on it on my blog.

With CCPM+ we also calculate task buffer penetration and use it for the decision as to “which task to work on next”. I believe you do the same with ProChain. If you color code the task buffer penetration for that purpose it provides another reason to keep the chart thresholds the same across multiple projects that share resources.

Comment on Be Fast Or Be Gone by Philip Marris

Philip Marris — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:15:10 +0000

I have read and reread Andrea’s book. I think it is a very important book in the world of TOC. It fixes the problems of Eli Goldratt’s original novel (Critical Chain) which launched the subject in 1997. Eli’s book is not his best : the description of the approcah is incomplete (an easy criticism 14 years later!) and it too often adresses other issues (MBAs, …).

I often give a copy of “Be Fast And Be Gone” to people who are curious about CCPM. It pleasantly explains why this is a powerful approach and how to implement it.

Philip Marris
CEO Marris Consulting
Paris France

Comment on Fever Chart Regions by Kim Kaiser

Kim Kaiser — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:19:57 +0000

Disagree that C should be at the origin. We always have to do a start-up gate 5. Fever chart should allow for that. I recommend that C be located at the smaller of (5% or 45/total project length in days)

Comment on Be Fast Or Be Gone by Beth Jensen

Beth Jensen — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:22:47 +0000

I just finished Be Fast or Be Gone. The book does a great job of introducing critical chain concepts and what it takes to get a large organization on board for an important business commitment. Having worked intensely with the ProChain folks, I can attest that the scenarios are realistic, and that impressive positive outcomes will occur when there is top down management support, and good training provided to the project teams. I think that, for the sake of writing a page-turner book, Dr. Scherer created a scenario in which allowed change to occur quickly. But, having implemented critical chain in a medical device environment, it is true that the 35% cycle time reduction is no exaggeration.
Dr. Scherer does a nice job of explaining the counter-productivity of multitasking by describing the results when someone reads many books simultaneously rather than first finishing one, then starting a new one. He also shows how very compatible critical chain is with lean six sigma programs.
Spoiler warning: Little Timmy makes it. Whew.