The Goal

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'And let's just take the X machine as an example,' he says. 'How many hours a month did you say it's available for produc- tion?'

'About 585,' says Ralph.

'The actual cost of a bottleneck is the total expense of the system divided by the number of hours the bottleneck produces,' says Jonah. 'What does this make it?'

Lou takes out his calculator from his coat pocket and punches in the numbers.

'That's $2,735,' says Lou. 'Now wait a minute. Is that right?'

'Yes, it's right,' says Jonah. 'If your bottlenecks are not working, you haven't just lost $32 or $21. The true cost is the cost of an hour of the entire system. And that's twenty seven hundred dollars.'

Lou is flabbergasted.

'That puts a different perspective on it,' says Stacey.

'Of course it does,' says Jonah. 'And with that in mind, how do we optimize the use of the bottlenecks? There are two princi- pal themes on which you need to concentrate...

'First, make sure the bottlenecks' time is not wasted,' he says. 'How is the time of a bottleneck wasted? One way is for it to be sitting idle during a lunch break. Another is for it to be pro- cessing parts which are already defective-or which will become defective through a careless worker or poor process control. A third way to waste a bottleneck's time is to make it work on parts you don't need.'

'You mean spare parts?' asks Bob.

'I mean anything that isn't within the current demand,' he says. 'Because what happens when you build inventory now that you won't sell for months in the future? You are sacrificing pres- ent money for future money; the question is, can your cash flow sustain it? In your case, absolutely not.'

'He's right,' admits Lou.

'Then make the bottlenecks work only on what will contrib- ute to throughput today ... not nine months from now,' says Jonah. 'That's one way to increase the capacity of the bottle- necks. The other way you increase bottleneck capacity is to take some of the load off the bottlenecks and give it to non-bottle- necks.'

I ask, 'Yeah, but how do we do that?'

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'That's why I was asking those questions when we were out in the plant,' he says. 'Do all of the parts have to be processed by the bottleneck? If not, the ones which don't can be shifted to non- bottlenecks for processing. And the result is you gain capacity on your bottleneck. A second question: do you have other machines to do the same process? If you have the machines, or if you have a vendor with the right equipment, you can offload from the bottle- neck. And, again, you gain capacity which enables you to increase throughput.'

I come into the kitchen for breakfast the next morning and sit down to a big steaming bowl of my mother's oatmeal... which I have hated ever since I was a kid. I'm staring at the oatmeal (and the oatmeal is staring back) when Mom/Grandma asks, 'So how did everything go last night?'

I say, 'Well, actually, you and the kids were on the right track at dinner.'

'We were?' asks Dave.

'We need to make the Herbies go faster,' I say. 'And last night Jonah pointed out some ways to do that. So we learned a lot.'

'Well, now, isn't that good news,' says my mother.

She pours a cup of coffee for herself and sits down at the table. It's quiet for a moment. Then I notice that Mom and the kids are eyeing each other.

'Something wrong?' I ask.

'Their mother called again last night while you were gone,' says my mother.

Julie has been calling the kids regularly since she left. But for whatever reason of her own, she still won't tell them where she is. I'm debating whether to hire a private detective to find out where she's hiding.

'Sharon says she heard something when she was on the phone talking,' says my mother.

I look at Sharon.

'You know that music Grandpa always listens to?' she says.

I say, 'You mean Grandpa Barnett?'

'Uh- huh, you know,' she says, 'the music that puts you to sleep, with the-what are they called?'

'Violins,' says Dave.

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'Right, the violins,' says Sharon. 'Well, when Mom wasn't talking, I heard that on the phone last night.'

'I heard 'em too,' says Dave.

'Really?' I say. 'That's very interesting. Thank you both for noticing that. Maybe I'll give Grandma and Grandpa Barnett an- other call today.'

I finish my coffee and stand up.

'Alex, you haven't even touched your oatmeal,' says Mom.

I lean down and kiss her on the cheek. 'Sorry, I'm late for school.'

I wave to the kids and hurry to grab my briefcase.

'Well, I'll just have to save it so you can eat it tomorrow,' says my mother.

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20

Driving to the plant, I pass the motel where Jonah stayed last night. I know he's long gone-he had a 6:30 A.M. flight to catch. I offered to pick him up this morning and drive him to the airport, but (lucky for me) he refused and said he'd take a cab.

As soon as I get to the office, I tell Fran to set up a meeting with the staff. Meanwhile, I start to write down a list of the actions Jonah suggested last night. But Julie comes to mind and won't leave. I close my office door and sit down at my desk. I find the number for Julie's parents and dial it.

The first day after Julie left, her parents called to ask me if I had heard anything. They haven't called back since. A day or two ago, I tried getting in touch with them to find out if they had heard anything. I called in the afternoon and I talked to Julie's mother, Ada. She said she didn't know where Julie was. Even then, I didn't quite believe her.

Now Ada answers again.

'Hi, this is Alex,' I tell her. 'Let me talk to Julie.'

Ada is flustered. 'Well, um, ah... she isn't here.'