Hi Ken,

Send a copy of that book to Toyota. :) 

Sorry couldn't resist.  

Ron

> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org [mailto:squeak-dev-
> bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Ken G. Brown
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 4:04 PM
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
> Subject: Re: [squeak-dev] 4.1 release timing
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 2010-03-17, at 12:52 PM, Alexander Lazarević <laza at blobworks.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 19:10, Ken G. Brown <kbrown at mac.com> wrote:
> >> In my experience it is almost always better to think things through
> >> and fix known issues instead of rushing for some arbitrary deadline.
> >
> > I think this depends on our goals. I would like to see us aiming for
> > continuous improvement rather than instant perfection at some distant
> > time in the future. And my understanding of continuous improvement
> > also includes more frequent releases.
> > Rebasing the trunk tree on 4.0 makes an excellent goal for me and
> > would justify a 0.1 incremented release.
> >
> >> Do it right the first time.
> >
> > This would make having sex a misión imposible ;)
> >
> > Alex
> >
> 
> You've got a good point there! :)
> However I see that perhaps generalisims don't always apply.
> 
> I am referring to the conclusions that HP came up with years ago when
> they studied why the Japanese manufacturing seemed to be doing so
> well. They evidently sent a team over to study Japanese management
> techniques. After some time they discovered that they appeared to
> strive for incremental improvement, and if they discovered a defect,
> say in an electronic board, they would take the time to not only
> correct the defect, but also fix the underlying cause of the defect,
> always working towards the long term improvement of the processes, not
> the short term gain. US manufacturing tended towards the short term
> only.
> HP instituted quite a few of these improved concepts in their board
> manufacturing and as I recall saved something like $20 million the
> first year, just in reduced inventory of electronics waiting for
> testing.
> 
> Their conclusion was 'do it right the first time' even if it makes the
> schedule slip. If you know there is something wrong, take the time to
> fix.
> 
> Anyone interested can grab some of the well known books on Japanese
> Manufacturing for some good concepts.
> 
> And I've personally had to deal with fixing things on customer sites
> that were rushed out unfinished to meet an arbitrary deadline. It's
> very expensive and embarassing to say the least.
> 
> Let's not rush 4.1 out to try to cover the shortfalls caused by
> rushing 4.0 out with fanfare even before the deal is signed and sealed.
> 
>    Ken G. Brown
> from my iPhone