Each month, CRITICAL PATH tells us, you will find:

• "Unique and challenging perspectives on product development issues
• "Reviews and links to Web-based resources for product developers
• "Expert commentary and quick tips from recognized experts
• "Humorous top ten lists and other facetiousness
• "Updates and news on Management Roundtable activities
• "Reader responses to CP articles"

Gregg Tong, Management Roundtable's Director of Product Development, has done a very good job of putting together this newsletter from the back issues I sampled. The articles are thoughtful, the Top Ten lists are funny, and each edition of the newsletter covers a diverse set of topics. Most subscribers will at least one article in each issue of personal value.

Here's a sample from the opening article of the March 22nd issue, entitled, "The Early Bird Get the Worm, But the Second Mouse Gets the Cheese":

"...The Dark Side of 'Efficiency' and 'Maximum Utilization'

"From The Goal and Lean Thinking, we learn that even a machine that runs non-stop all the time making parts is not truly efficient, even though that is typically how they are measured by those who keep score. But how efficient is a warehouse (which you pay for) full of parts (which you bought materials to make) for products no customer has ordered? 'Aha,' say many in the finance department, 'we count those as assets!' This is a classic situation where a point optimization is heralded with no connection to system efficiency.

"Similarly, as discussed in Developing Products in Half the Time and Managing the Design Factory, people efficiency can be related to machine efficiency. The same flawed assumptions about downtime of capital equipment can be related to downtime in the engineering department. Just because a resource is idle is not necessarily a wasteful situation.

"Typically it is assumed that an engineer (or other function) between tasks costs the company money in the form of unused labor hours, and is therefore allocated to 'filler' tasks or overloaded with multiple projects. However, which of the following two people is best able to tackle a new priority or unanticipated development issue? Is it the engineer with the full in-box or the guy who's been surfing the Internet all day? Which one would anger the 'suit' from Corporate who decides to walk through the cube jungle that day on a whim? Think hard - you could debate this one with managers for years..."