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This book was written in 1969, the year LBJ left office. According to author Booth Mooney, Johnson viewed this book as a huge betrayal by his younger brother. So much so that LBJ apparently quit talking to Sam Houston. That it caused such a rift is surprising since the book is basically favorable to LBJ. According to Mooney, the two brothers never reconciled before President Johnson's death in 1973.
In this book we see Sam Houston as the easy going prankster. This stands in contrast to the serious Lyndon. Not only did the author live with Lyndon and Lady Bird periodically during the 1940's and 50's but he also lived with them in the White House during much of the Johnson Presidency. So the author can speak authoritatively about not only his brother but many other politicians of that time.
Sam Houston Johnson shows that his brother was a loyal Vice President to John F. Kennedy. Both in public and in private LBJ defended Kennedy in spite of the bad treatment he received from Kennedy's men. And according to the author it was Lyndon who convinced Kennedy to send men to the moon.
The author contends that Secretary of Defense McNamara was two-faced and disloyal. He believes that if Johnson would have dumped McNamara sooner the Vietnam War might have ended much sooner. And LBJ would have been easily reelected in 1968.
The author also criticizes President Nixon. He states that as a candidate Nixon was irresponsible and opportunistic in his comments against Johnson.
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And now we have a new "Silver Bullet," or at least that was what the authors would have you believe! But is 3C the greatest thing since sliced bread? To be sure, it does have something to offer. Unfortunately, a reading of this book will not answer all your questions because:
"Although not complicated, because of space and time constraints, we will leave all detailed explanations pertaining to implementation to future separate publications." (p 62)
The technique that "3C" is to replace is called Material Requirements Planning (MRP). It is a technique for determining what supplies you will need in order to build what you have decided to build. It was NEVER meant to determine what you are capable of building, that was left to Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP). It was NEVER intended to predict what you should build, that was left to Master Scheduling (MPS). It was only designed to simplify the ordering / reordering process, by flagging the parts which must be given special consideration.
3C doesn't eliminate forecasting, it doesn't address the complexity of accounting for new product startup, and it doesn't work when each product has its own unique bottleneck. For example, assume that two products use aluminum sheet. Product A uses a shear to cut the aluminum into rectangles and product B uses a punch press to cut the aluminum into circles. These two cutting techniques are the respective bottlenecks for these two products. 3C would suggest that you stock enough aluminum sheet to provide for the product that consumes the most aluminum sheet, and ignore the other.
The authors unfairly criticize MRP by saying:
"The lack of success before 3C was due to the unfortunate fact that MRP methodologies are completely blind to commonality and consequently are unable to exploit it in any way." (p 63)
But MPS, which drives MRP has powerful tools to "aggregate" demand. This means that common parts (say, lug-nuts) are ordered against a forecast for vehicles, long before the forecast is refined to include cars, trucks and SUVs. When an order for a red SUV is processed, 20 lug-nuts are available.
One piece of fancy footwork, is 3C's technique of setting a "Maximum Sales Rate" (MSR), and not "allowing" sales beyond that. I wonder if the customer who is refused would agree that represents "100% customer service!"
And last but not least, the website listed in the book has been closed and there currently are no "subsequent publications" available to fill the gaps left by this incomplete work.
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This book tells you: "Keep It Simple". Use your money wisely and don't waste one more minute. The answer is right in front of your nose.
Its stile reminds you of Goldratt. It is aggressive, to the point, and easy to read. But most of all it tells you how.
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It is interesting to read about Texas as a foreign land as seen through the eyes of the author because I grew up there. It was fascinating to realize the adventures and drama that occured so many hundreds of years ago when two cultures collided and no one was positive who would dominate. We know today who did, but at that time, the master (conquistador) did become the slave (of the natives) for seven years. In this way, a valuable account of tribal life and culture is written first-hand, but many years after the events took place.
One thing I noticed is that Cabeza de Vaca still maintains a sense of superiority in that he never refers to any of the native people by their names in the book. It may be that he forgot the names over time. Or, he never considered it of importance because the natives were "barbarians" and intellectually inferior in his eyes. I'm also not sure that the author reveals the full truth of his role in the events that took place once he met up with the other conquistadors in Texas after his enslavement. He's a little too much the hero. While Cabeza de Vaca is somewhat sympathetic towards the native people, one feels that Cabeza de Vaca still looks upon the Europeans as explorers and evangelists, while those being explored and evangelized saw the Europeans as conquerors and gold-diggers. But we don't have their account.
Other than this, the book is very informative and filled with detailed information on geography and culture. I also purchased the Spanish version and so realized that the English translation is excellent.
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