Clockspeed : Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage

In Clockspeed, Charles Fine intertwines three major themes for businesses that are driven by short product and process lifecycles: 1: no competitive advantage is permanent; 2: no capability exists in a vacuum; 3: organizations must tear down walls and concurrently engineer products, processes and supply chains (capabilities). By managing from a capabilities perspective, looming changes in supply chain pressures become more visible. Corporate DNA mapping (the double-helix of business) provides a view of integration/modularity cycles and their implications to vertical/horizontal industry orientation. Simultaneous design of products, processes and supply chains marks the culmination of an organization's strategic orientation to these concepts, and steers decisions that are critical to make/buy decisions and overall capability planning.-No Advantage is PermanentNew roles are needed to mine new opportunities. Outsourcing and downsizing with only cost-savings in mind can create critical limits in supply chains. Choosing appropriate strategic capabilities for the core toolbox is the ultimate strategic core competency. Leaders must identify high-value-added capabilities; commodity-destined capabilities and time scales for both.Three sub-metrics are involved in evaluating clock speed: process, product and organization. Consider obsolescence rates of all three in strategic planning.Since all advantage is temporary, they key is to repeatedly choose which advantages to cultivate for changing market conditions.-No Capability Exists in a VacuumFine asserts that "there is no competency more critical than that of superior design of one's capability chain - from the final consumer all the way upstream to the sources of raw materials and new technological concepts." This underscores the need for careful attention in designing the extended organization. Placing supply chain management in the context of the suite of stakeholders gives a more full view of the need to manage capabilities: where are the greatest opportunities are in the chain and where resources will be most scarce in the future?Small changes in the middle of the chain can have large effects at both ends. Plan, monitor and reassign accordingly. Map the capabilities chain to identify weak links and provide a new view of opportunities. A strategic "cord of three strands" is made of intertwined chains of organizations, technologies and capabilities. This idea forms the foundation for the pinnacle concept of concurrent engineering.-Concurrent EngineeringThree-dimensional concurrent engineering (3DCE) or integrated product development is the simultaneous, coordinated development of products, processes and supply chains (including strategic capabilities). It is important to view the supply chain as an extended enterprise, not just a series of transaction nodes. Concurrently designing products (or services), processes and supply chains improves overall ability to effectively navigate rapidly changing supply and market pressures by strategically managing with the extended enterprise in view. Silos cannot exist in this framework.These ideas underpin the key steps to capabilities chain design: determine what capabilities are core versus peripheral; what to outsource; which suppliers to use. Capability chains and supply chains are interwoven. Manage them integrally to become responsive and to foresee, prepare and adapt to meet new challenges before they arrive.

I find the book is divided in two books:1. analysis of supply chains, understanding an industry, and how you can draw conclusions and foresee the future,2. how to work with supply chains; what to build or buy and how to treat your suppliers, etc.I am interested in the analysis and not supply chain so the first part of the book was pleasing.I will tell you why I liked the first part of the book:a) Fine describes how fast an industry is "updated". From the slowest (ex: military and civic flight) to the fastest (ex: mobile telephony, internet, etc). This made me understand why mobile operators have lost the war against the Nokias of the world, and why all are afraid when Google and Yahoo! enters the mobile space.b) He then tells you why an industry is VERTICAL withintegral/integrated parts or HORIZONTAL with modular parts and what drives an industry to change, and why the change goes back and forth over time. This was absolutely fantastic for me because it really explained the rationale behind internal development, niches and outsourcing.The rest of the book describes ethics and philosophy within supply chain dynamics, how to control sourcing, and simple rules of why to build or buy.Fine writes in a simple language, but the toolbox he gives you is complex and made me understand the industry I work in with new eyes!

I got this book for school and it did the job and the material in the book was good as well.

Clock Speed may be one of the older books on the subject of Supply Chain Design and Supply Chain Management, but it is still probably the best book out there for someone who wants to understand the history and methodology of these evolving fields. Once you read this book and understand that the principles of 3-DCE (three-dimensional concurrent engineering) apply to every kink of business and industry you will never look at a business or an industry the same way as before. It's also fun to see how much of what the author predicted would happen has actually come true over the past 10 years. A must read for anyone who seriously wants to learn and understand the basics of protecting and exploiting business opportunities.

Anyone who is in the supply chain side of any industry should read this. I've been in the semiconductor industry for more than a decade and switched to aerospace in the past year. The concept of the clockspeed is no more stark than comparing the clockspeed of semiconductors and aerospace. The semiconductor industry followed Moore's law, which can range between 18 months to 2.5 years in life cycle. Aerospace industry, on the other hand, could stretch decades!

This book has some really interesting threads around supply chain design competency, clockspeed, and learning from industry fruit flies, but the real value of the book is in between all of that. For years, there have been wonderful insights into technology strategy, product architecture, manufacturing strategy, etc. etc. roaming around the halls of MIT and throughout journal articles. The only way to really tap this depth of knowledge is by being there. Charlie has woven these thoughts, ideas, and concepts throughout the book rather seemlessly. If you read the book carefully, and think very hard about some of the nuggets throughout the book, I'm sure it will be worth your time.

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Prof Charles Fine is the best professor to teach you the concepts behind designing a company's supply chain and operations. His teachings are best augmented by his own book, provided quickly by Amazon's vendor.

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Great Book, arrived as advertised and in great condition.

one of the best books i have ever read on operations.