Press Releases

Janueary 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAXIMIZING PROFIT'S OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES REVEAL WHICH MANUFACTURING DECISIONS WILL BE MOST PROFITALBLE

NEW YORK . . . Until now, the development of critical financial measures that guide manufacturers in making key decisions has lagged behind the pace at which product and process technology has grown. But now, with Productivity Press' new, Maximizing Profit - How to Measure the Financial Impact of Manufacturing Decisions, by Walt Thrun, manufacturers have a tool enabling them to make the optimal decisions that will maximize profitability.

Maximizing Profit's simple, no-nonsense language and practical techniques help managers measure the financial effects of typical manufacturing decisions, assess their impact on plant profitability and understand why current practices are counterproductive.

Employing a hypothetical company case study based on the author's actual experiences, the book guides the reader through such common manufacturing decisions as product mix, process improvement, make-or-buy and capital investment. The reader can follow along step-by-step as the team sets aside its prior assumptions and uses optimization techniques to inform their decisions.

Highlights include:

* Revealing counter-productive performance measures (the "seven deadly sins of manufacturing") that generate tremendous amounts of waste

* Identifying the operational objectives that will realize the greatest profits

* Managing with optimization techniques

* Reassessing the make-or-buy decision

* Incorporating lean manufacturing activities into the aggregate plan

* Rethinking traditional capital project ranking techniques

* Measuring the financial impact of multi-plant operations

* A CD-ROM with an interactive Excel Solver spreadsheet tool, an optimization algorithm, so the reader can experiment chapter by chapter

About the Author

Walt Thrun has split the last 20 years evenly between working in manufacturing operations as Manufacturing Manager, and manufacturing finance as Controller, at three blue-chip firms, Anaconda, Tenneco and Pepsi-Co. In his eleventh year in academia, he teaches undergraduate and graduate operations and finance at three campuses of Oklahoma State University. Thrun earned an MBA from California State University with a finance emphasis.

About Productivity Press

Founded to provide world-class guidance for every level of an organization, Productivity Press is unrivaled in publishing high-quality material on lean manufacturing and business improvement. Our books, audio books and our newsletter, Lean Manufacturing Advisor, are designed to help educate and support organizations in their efforts to implement the advanced management and manufacturing methodologies required to compete in today's global business environment.

List price is $40.00. Complimentary review copies are available to media contacts by calling (212) 216-7865 or by e-mailing: leon.carter@taylorandfrancis.com/P>

For more information on Maximizing Profit, or any of Productivity's other titles, call (888) 319-5852 or email info@productivitypress.com.

Advance Praise For

Maximizing Profit -

How to Measure the Financial Impact of Manufacturing Decisions

By Walt Thrun

"Using the Profit Maximization Techniques developed by Walt Thrun will allow any production facility to calculate their maximum profit obtainable. Now there is no need to guess what the optimum product mix should be for your plant, what Capital Projects to implement, what your budget and forecast should be. This has the potential to revolutionize productivity as we measure it today. Let's quit getting better at doing the wrong things and start doing the right things."

Steve Ryan

Turnaround Planning

Sunoco Inc., Tulsa Refinery

"Without the precepts in Maximizing Profit, most manufacturing organizations are at an immediate disadvantage when making make or buy decisions, choosing which process improvement to implement, or even which capital improvement to make. Each decision will impact the bottom line. The question is, will it be positive or negative in regard to the bottom line? The ability to now focus on the maximization of contribution answers this question and reveals the opportunities that await every business owner, general manager and anyone else involved in making decisions."

Chris West

Project Engineer

The Nordam Group

"Imagine having a tool that could make quantum leaps in company profitability with no added capital investment, cost reduction, or product price increases. Within Maximizing Profit lies that tool, evidenced not only in my reading of the book, but in my application of its concepts."

Michael Pierce

Plant Manager

West Coast Processors

"This easy-to-read book offers a refreshing new look at non-traditional methods to measure manufacturing performance in terms all decision makers can understand...profit. Armed with readily available computer tools, Walt Thrun confidently and logically assaults conventional thinking and methods in performance measurement and leads the reader to obvious conclusions about the relationship between constraints and profitability. Such measures as overhead absorption, cost allocation and plant utilization are replaced with profit optimization, contribution maximization and return on investment."

Michael Piggott

Quality Assurance Manager, Waterloo Industries

Certified Quality Manager, ASQ

Certified Quality Engineer, ASQ

"The difference between variable costs and fixed costs is like night and day. Academia of today intertwines the two in the standard cost system and produces graduates with a blurred view of cost accounting. Walt Thrun shows the fallacies of the standard cost system and gives a contemporary alternative. As an engineer, I appreciate the calculation to find the correct product mix to maximize profit."

Rob Renfro