The Goal

jobs. Of course, when there's a business downturn, we lay people off.'

'But the robots themselves didn't reduce your plant's people expense,' he says.

'No,' I admit.

'Then, tell me, did your inventories go down?' asks Jonah.

I chuckle.

'Hey, Jonah, what is this?' I say to him.

'Just tell me,' he says. 'Did inventories go down?'

'Offhand, I have to say I don't think so. But I'd really have to check the numbers.'

'Check your numbers if you'd like,' says Jonah. 'But if your inventories haven't gone down... and your employee expense was not reduced... and if your company isn't selling more products-which obviously it can't, if you're not shipping more of them-then you can't tell me these robots increased your plant's productivity.'

In the pit of my stomach, I'm getting this feeling like you'd probably have if you were in an elevator and the cable snapped.

'Yeah, I see what you're saying, in a way,' I tell him. 'But my efficiencies went up, my costs went down-'

'Did they?' asks Jonah. He closes his book.

'Sure they did. In fact, those efficiencies are averaging well above ninety percent. And my cost per part went down consider- ably. Let me tell you, to stay competitive these days, we've got to do everything we can to be more efficient and reduce costs.'

34

My drink arrives; the waitress puts it on the table beside me. I hand her a ten and wait for her to give me the change.

'With such high efficiencies, you must be running your ro- bots constantly,' says Jonah.

'Absolutely,' I tell him. 'We have to. Otherwise, we'd lose our savings on our cost per part. And efficiencies would go down. That applies not only to the robots, but to our other production resources as well. We have to keep producing to stay efficient and maintain our cost advantage.'

'Really?' he says.

'Sure. Of course, that's not to say we don't have our prob- lems.'

'I see,' says Jonah. Then he smiles. 'Come on! Be honest. Your inventories are going through the roof, are they not?'

I look at him. How does he know?

'If you mean our work-in-process-'

'All of your inventories,' he says.

'Well, it depends. Some places, yes, they are high,' I say.

'And everything is always late?' asks Jonah. 'You can't ship anything on time?'

'One thing I'll admit,' I tell him, 'is that we have a heck of a problem meeting shipping dates. It's a serious issue with custom- ers lately.'

Jonah nods, as if he had predicted it.

'Wait a minute here... how come you know about these things?' I ask him.

He smiles again.

'Just a hunch,' says Jonah. 'Besides, I see those symptoms in a lot of the manufacturing plants. You're not alone.'

I say, 'But aren't you a physicist?'

'I'm a scientist,' he says. 'And right now you could say I'm doing work in the science of organizations- manufacturing orga- nizations in particular.'

'Didn't know there was such a science.'

'There is now,' he says.

'Whatever it is you're into, you put your finger on a couple of my biggest problems, I have to give you that,' I tell him. 'How come-'

I stop because Jonah is exclaiming something in Hebrew. He's reached into a pocket of his trousers to take out an old watch.

35

'Sorry, Alex, but I see I'm going to miss my plane if I don't hurry,' he says.

He stands up and reaches for his coat.

'That's too bad,' I say. 'I'm kind of intrigued by a couple of things you've said.'

Jonah pauses.

'Yes, well, if you could start to think about what we've been discussing, you probably could get your plant out of the trouble it's in.'

'Hey, maybe I gave you the wrong impression,' I tell him. 'We've got a few problems, but I wouldn't say the plant is in trouble.'

He looks me straight in the eye. He knows what's going on, I'm thinking.

'But tell you what,' I hear myself saying, 'I've got some time to kill. Why don't I walk you down to your plane? Would you mind?'

'No, not at all,' he says. 'But we have to hurry.'

I get up and grab my coat and briefcase. My drink is sitting there. I take a quick slurp off the top and abandon it. Jonah is already edging his way toward the door. He waits for me to catch up with him. Then the two of us step out into the corridor where people are rushing everywhere. Jonah sets off at a fast pace. It takes an effort to keep up with him.

'I'm curious,' I tell Jonah, 'what made you suspect some- thing might be wrong with my plant?'

'You told me yourself,' Jonah says.

'No, I didn't.'

'Alex,' he says, 'it was clear to me from your own words that you're not running as efficient a plant as you think you are. You are running exactly the opposite. You are running a very in-effi- cient plant.'

'Not according to the measurements,' I tell him. 'Are you trying to tell me my people are wrong in what they're reporting... that they're lying to me or something?'

'No,' he says. 'It is very unlikely your people are lying to you. But your measurements definitely are.'

'Yeah, okay, sometimes we massage the numbers here and there. But everybody has to play that game.'

'You're missing the point,' he says. 'You think you're run- ning an efficient plant... but your thinking is wrong.'

36

'What's wrong with my thinking? It's no different from the thinking of most other managers.'

'Yes, exactly,' says Jonah.

'What's that supposed to mean?' I ask; I'm beginning to feel somewhat insulted by this.

'Alex, if you're like nearly everybody else in this world, you've accepted so many things without question that