I both read this book and listened to the audiobook, and I would recommend you do the same. Hearing Jonah (the Socratic teacher) say “Statistical fluctuations” in a very foreign accent is highly entertaining. It has really helped me retain the term.
Long story short, ‘statistical fluctuations’ is the term used to described variances in task duration. If you have to assemble 100 products, some will get assembled faster than others. There will be variance, a.k.a. statistical fluctuations.
That’s all well and good, but when you have a number of tasks to coordinate – they’re happening one after the other, in parallel, or a combination – these variances can fuck your shit up (technical terms).
Jonah warns that understanding the interplay between these two things – statistical fluctuations and dependent events – is critical. It’s a huge part of the book, so I will define these terms.
Statistical fluctuations = variance in task duration.
Dependent events = events that must happen one after the other.
If you think about it, these two things show up in all kind of project – not just a manufacturing plant. This book provides some guidance for how to manage them.