Part of the "Theory of Constraints Simplified" series, The SPEED Book is a short guide published in early 2025 that reframes the constraint problem through an aerodynamics metaphor: the enemy is drag, and you don't fix drag by pushing harder but by reshaping and streamlining.
The core message is "traction starts with subtraction" -- with the same people and budget, a little streamlining reduces drag and increases throughput. This is recognizably the TOC insight (stop doing things that don't serve the constraint) repackaged in language drawn from physics rather than manufacturing. Where the-bottleneck-rules presents the focccus-formula as a step-by-step methodology, The SPEED Book appears to target readers who respond better to a single governing metaphor.
The book belongs to the prolific publishing burst of the bottleneck-guy-brand-period, alongside cash-cows-make-the-best-burgers, the-bottleneck-detective, and the forthcoming the-motorcade-method. This rapid output reflects Ching's strategy of creating multiple short, accessible entry points into bottleneck-thinking for different audiences and framings -- each book offering a different angle on the same underlying TOC principles.