The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, page 29
Julie and I go to the park, and after walking for awhile, we sit down on a bench by the river. We sit without saying anything for a while. She asks me if something is wrong. I tell her about Sharon’s question.
"She asks me that all the time,’’ says Julie.
"She does? What do you tell her?’’
Julie says, "I tell her we’ll be going home real soon.’’
I laugh. "That’s what I said to her. Do you really mean that?’’
She’s quiet for a second. Finally, she smiles at me and says sincerely, "You’ve been a lot of fun to be around in the last few weeks.’’
"Thanks. The feeling is mutual,’’ I say.
She takes my hand and says, "But ...I’m sorry, Al. I’m still worried about coming home.’’
"Why? We’re getting along a lot better now,’’ I say, "What’s the problem?’’
"Look, we’ve had some good times for a change. And that’s fine. I’ve really needed this time with you,’’ she says. "But if we go back to living together, you know what’s going to happen don’t you? Everything will be fine for about two days. But a week from now we’ll be having the same arguments. And a month later, or six months, or a year from now . . . well, you know what I mean.’’
I sigh. "Julie, was it that bad living with me?’’
"Al, it wasn’t bad,’’ she says. "It was just...I don’t know. You weren’t paying any attention to me.’’
"But I was having all kinds of problems in my job. I was really in over my head for awhile. What did you expect from me?’’
"More than what I was getting,’’ Julie says. "You know, when I was growing up, my father always came home from work at the same time. The whole family always ate together. He spent the evenings at home. With you, I never know what’s going on.’’
"You can’t compare me to your father,’’ I say. "He’s a dentist. After the last tooth of the day is filled, he can lock up and go home. My business isn’t like that.’’
"Alex, the problem is you are not like that,’’ she says. "Other people go to work and come home at regular times.’’
"Yes, you’re partially right. I am not like other people,’’ I admit. "When I get involved in something, I really get involved. And maybe that has to do with the way I was brought up. Look at my family—we hardly ever ate together. Somebody always had to be minding the store. It was my father’s rule: the business was what fed us, so it came first. We all understood that and we all worked together.’’
"So what does that prove except our families were different?’’ she asks. "I’m telling you about something that bothered me so much and for so long that I wasn’t even sure if I loved you anymore.’’
"So what makes you sure you love me now?’’
"Do you want another fight?’’ she asks.
I look the other way.
"No, I don’t want to fight,’’ I tell her.
I hear her sigh. Then she says, "You see? Nothing has changed... has it.’’
Neither of us says a word for quite awhile. Julie gets up and walks over to the river. It looks for a second as if she might run away. She doesn’t. She comes back again and sits down on the bench.
She says to me, "When I was eighteen, I had everything planned—college, a teaching degree, marriage, a house, children. In that order. All the decisions were made. I knew what china pattern I wanted. I knew the names I wanted for the kids. I knew what the house should look like and what color the rug should be. Everything was certain. And it was so important that I have it all. But now...I have it all, only it’s different somehow. None of it seems to matter.’’
"Julie, why does your life have to conform to this . . . this perfect image you have in your head?’’ I ask her. "Do you even know why you want the things you do?’’
"Because that’s how I grew up,’’ she says. "And what about you? Why do you have to have this big career? Why do you feel compelled to work twenty-four hours a day?’’
Silence.
Then she says, "I’m sorry. I’m just very confused.’’
"No, that’s okay,’’ I say. "It was a good question. I have no idea why I wouldn’t be satisfied being a grocer, or a nine-to-five office worker.’’
"Al, why don’t we just try to forget all this,’’ she suggests.
"No, I don’t think so,’’ I tell her. "I think we should do the opposite. We ought to start asking a few more questions.’’
Julie gives me a skeptical look and asks, "Like what?’’
"Like what is our marriage supposed to do for us?’’ I ask her. "My idea of the goal of a marriage is not living in a perfect house where everything happens according to a clock. Is that the goal for you?’’
"All I’m asking for is a little dependability from my husband,’’ she says. "And what’s all this about a goal? When you’re married, you’re just married. There is no goal.’’
"Then why be married?’’ I ask.
"You get married because of commitment . . . because of love... because of all the reasons everybody else does,’’ she says. "Alex, you’re asking a lot of dumb questions.’’
"Whether they’re dumb or smart, I’m asking them because we’ve been living together for fifteen years and we have no clear understanding of what our marriage is supposed to do...or become...or anything!’’ I sputter. "We’re just coasting along, doing ‘what everyone else does.’ And it turns out the two of us have some very different assumptions of what our lives are supposed to be like.’’
"My parents have been married for thirty-seven years,’’ she says, "and they never asked any questions. Nobody ever asks ‘What is the goal of a marriage?’ People just get married because they’re in love.’’
"Oh. Well, that explains everything, doesn’t it,’’ I say.
"Al, please don’t ask these questions,’’ she says. "They don’t have any answers. And if we keep talking this way, we’re going to ruin everything. If this is your way of saying you’re having second thoughts about us—’’
"Julie, I’m not having second thoughts about you. But you’re the one who can’t figure out what’s wrong with us. Maybe if you tried to think about this logically instead of simply comparing us to the characters in a romance novel—’’
"I do not read romance novels,’’ she says.
"Then where did you get your ideas about how a marriage is supposed to be?’’ I ask her.
She says nothing.
"All I’m saying is we ought to throw away for the moment all the pre-conceptions we have about our marriage, and just take a look at how we are right now,’’ I tell her. "Then we ought to figure out what we want to have happen and go in that direction.’’
But Julie doesn’t seem to be listening. She stands up.
"I think it’s time we walked back,’’ she says.
On the way back to the Barnett house, we’re as silent as two icebergs in January, the two of us drifting together. I look at one side of the street; Julie looks at the opposite. When we walk through the door, Mrs. Barnett invites me to stay for dinner, but I say I’ve got to be going. I say goodbye to the kids, give Julie a wave and leave.
I’m getting into the Mazdawhen I hear her come running after me.
"Will I see you again on Saturday?’’ she asks.
I smile a little "Yeah, sure. Sounds good.’’
She says, "I’m sorry about what happened.’’
"I guess we’ll just have to keep trying until we get it right.’’
We both start smiling. Then we do some of that nice stuff that makes an argument almost worth the agony.
28
I get home just as the sun is starting to set. The sky is rosy pink. As I’m unlocking the kitchen door, I hear the phone ringing inside. I rush in to grab it.
"Good morning,’’ says Jonah.
"Morning?’’ Outside the window, the sun is almost below the horizon. I laugh. "I’m watching the sun set. Where are you calling from?’’
"Singapore,’’ he says.
"Oh.’’
"By the way, from my hotel I’m watching the sun rise,’’ Jonah says. "Alex, I wouldn’t have called you at home, but I’m not going to be able to talk to you again for a few weeks.’’
"Why not?’’
"Well, it’s a long story and I can’t go into it now,’’ he says. "But I’m sure we’ll have a chance to discuss it some time.’’
"I see....’’ I wonder what’s going on, but say, "That’s too bad. It puts me in a kind of a bind, because I was just about to ask for your help again.’’
"Has something gone wrong?’’ he asks.
"No,’’ I tell him. "Everything is generally going very well from an operations standpoint. But I just had a meeting with my division vice president, and I was told the plant has to show an even bigger improvement.’’
"You’re still not making money?’’ he asks.
I say, "Yes, we are making money again, but we need to accelerate the improvement to save the plant from being shut down.’’
I hear the trace of a chuckle on the other end of the line, and Jonah says, "If I were you, I wouldn’t worry too much about being shut down.’’
"Well, from what the head of the division has told me, the possibility of a shut-down is real,’’ I tell him. "And until he says otherwise, I can’t afford to take this lightly.’’
"Alex, if you want to improve the plant even more, I’m with you all the way,’’ Jonah says. "And since I won’t have the opportunity to speak to you for awhile, let’s talk about it now. Bring me up to date on what’s happening.’’
So I do. Then, wondering if we’ve reached some theoretical limit by now, I ask him if there is anything else we can try.
"Anything else?’’ he says. "Believe me, we have only begun. Now, here’s what I suggest. . . .’’
Early the next morning, I’m in my office at the plant considering what Jonah told me. Outside is the dawn of the day he’s already seen in Singapore. Stepping out to get a cup of coffee, I find Stacey at the coffee machine.
"Hello there,’’ she says. "I hear everything went fairly well for us at headquarters yesterday.’’
"Well, not bad,’’ I say. "I’m afraid we still have a way to go before we convince Peach we’re good for the long term. But I talked to Jonah last night.’’
"Did you tell him about our progress?’’ she asks.
"Yes,’’ I say. "And he suggested we try what he called ‘the next logical step.’’’
I see her face take on a nervous grin. "What’s that?’’
"Cut our batch sizes in half on non-bottlenecks,’’ I say.
Stacy takes a step back as she thinks about this. "But why?’’ she asks.
I say with a smile, "Because in the end we’ll make more money.’’
"I don’t understand,’’ she says. "How is that going to help us?’’
"Hey, Stacey, you’re in charge of inventory control,’’ I tell her. "You tell me what would happen if we cut our batch sizes in half.’’
Thinking, she sips her coffee for a moment. Her brow compresses in concentration. Then she says, "If we cut our batch sizes in half, then I guess that at any one time we’d have half the workin-process on the floor. I guess that means we’d only need half the investment in work-in-process to keep the plant working. If we could work it out with our vendors, we could conceivably cut all our inventories in half, and by cutting our inventories in half, we reduce the amount of cash tied up at any one time, which eases the pressure on cash flow.’’
I’m nodding each time she says a sentence, and finally I say, "That’s right. That’s one set of benefits.’’
She says, "But to reap those benefits fully, we’d have to have our suppliers increase the frequency of deliveries to us and reduce the quantity of each delivery. That’s going to take some negotiating through purchasing, and I’m not sure all the vendors will go for it.’’
I tell her, "That’s something we can work on. Eventually they’ll go for it because it’s to their advantage as well as ours.’’
"But if we go to smaller batch sizes,’’ she says, squinting at me in cynicism, "doesn’t that mean we’ll have to have more setups on equipment?’’
"Sure,’’ I say, "don’t worry about it.’’
"Don’t—?’’
"Yeah, don’t worry about it.’’
"But Donovan—’’
"Donovan will do just fine, even with more setups,’’ I say. "And, meanwhile, there is another set of benefits, aside from what you said, that we can have almost immediately.’’
"What’s that?’’ she asks.
"You really want to know?’’
"Sure, I do.’’
"Good. You set up a meeting with the other functions and I’ll tell everyone at the same time.’’
For dumping that little chore of the meeting arrangements on her, Stacey pays me back in kind by setting the meeting for noon at the most expensive restaurant in town—with lunch billable to my expense number, of course.
"What could I do?’’ she asks as we sit down at the table. "It was the only time everybody was available, right, Bob?’’
"Right,’’ says Bob.
I’m not mad. Given the quality and quantity of work these people have done recently, I can’t complain about picking up the tab for lunch. I get right down to telling everybody what Stacey and I had talked about this morning, and lead up to the other set of benefits.
Part of what Jonah told me last night over the phone had to do with the time a piece of material spends inside a plant. If you consider the total time from the moment the material comes into the plant to the minute it goes out the door as part of a finished product, you can divide that time into four elements.
One of them is setup, the time the part spends waiting for a resource, while the resource is preparing itself to work on the part.
Another is process time, which is the amount of time the part spends being modified into a new, more valuable form.
A third element is queue time, which is the time the part spends in line for a resource while the resource is busy working on something else ahead of it.
The fourth element is wait time, which is the time the part waits, not for a resource, but for another part so they can be assembled together.
As Jonah pointed out last night, setup and process are a small portion of the total elapsed time for any part. But queue and wait often consume large amounts of time—in fact, the majority of the elapsed total that the part spends inside the plant.
For parts that are going through bottlenecks, queue is the dominant portion. The part is stuck in front of the bottleneck for a long time. For parts that are only going through non-bottlenecks, wait is dominant, because they are waiting in front of assembly for parts that are coming from the bottlenecks. Which means that in each case, the bottlenecks are what dictate this elapsed time. Which, in turn, means the bottlenecks dictate inventory as well as throughput.
We have been setting batch sizes according to an economical batch quantity (or EBQ) formula. Last night, Jonah told me that although he didn’t have time over the phone to go into all the reasons, EBQ has a number of flawed assumptions underlying it. Instead, he asked me to consider what would happen if we cut batch sizes by half from their present quantities.
If we reduce batch sizes by half, we also reduce by half the time it will take to process a batch. That means we reduce queue and wait by half as well. Reduce those by half, and we reduce by about half the total time parts spend in the plant. Reduce the time parts spend in the plant, and. . . .
"Our total lead time condenses,’’ I explain. "And with less time spent sitting in a pile, the speed of the flow of parts increases.’’
"And with faster turn-around on orders, customers get their orders faster,’’ says Lou.
"Not only that,’’ says Stacey, "but with shorter lead times we can respond faster.’’
"That’s right!’’ I say. "If we can respond to the market faster, we get an advantage in the marketplace.’’
"That means more customers come to us because we can deliver faster,’’ says Lou.
"Our sales increase!’’ I say.
"And so do our bonuses!’’ says Stacey.
"Whoa! Whoa now! Hold up here a minute!’’ says Bob.
