"Yeah. And it became even more interesting when we real- ized that we were visiting the same six or seven work centers every time. They're not bottlenecks, but the sequence in which they perform their jobs became very important. We call them 'capacity constraint resources,' CCR for short."
"Yeah, I know all about it. Those foremen have become al-
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most dependent on your people to prioritize their work," Bob says. "But Stacey, you're not answering our question."
"I'm coming to it. See, these holes have become more and more dangerous lately-sometimes to the extent that assembly has to deviate significantly from their scheduled sequence. And it's become apparent that the foremen of the CCRs have more and more difficulty supplying on time. Ralph was telling me that these work centers still have enough capacity, and maybe on the average he's right, but I'm afraid that any additional increase in sales will throw us into chaos."
So here's a bomb, ticking below our feet, and I didn't even realize it. I'm pressing so hard on marketing to bring more sales, and according to what Stacey's just revealed that might blow up the whole plant. I'm still trying to digest it when she continues.
"Don't you realize that we've concentrated our improvement efforts too narrowly? We tried so hard to improve our bottle- necks, when what we should do is improve the CCRs as well. Otherwise we'll run into an 'inter-active' bottleneck situation.
"See, the key is not in the hands of the materials people. If interactive bottlenecks emerge, chaos is inevitable; we'll have to expedite all over the place."
"So what are you suggesting?" I ask.
"The key is in the hands of production. These techniques to manage the buffers should not be used just to track missing parts while there is still time, they should be used mainly to focus our local improvement efforts. We must guarantee that the improve- ments on the CCRs will always be sufficient to prevent them from becoming bottlenecks.
"Alex, Bob, that's why I want this job so badly. I want to make sure that the material manager's job will continue to be boring. I want to demonstrate how local improvements should be managed. And I want to show all of you how much more throughput we can squeeze from the same resources."
"What about you Ralph, it's your turn to surprise me." "What do you mean?" he says in his quiet voice. "It looks like everyone around here has a pet project. What ace are you hiding up your sleeve?"
He smiles gently, "No aces, just a wish."
We all look at him encouragingly.
"I've started to like my job. I feel like I'm part of a team."
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We all nod in approval.
"It's not just me and the computer anymore, trying to fiddle with inaccurate or untimely data. People really need me now, and I feel like I'm contributing. But you know what? I think that the change, at least as it relates to my function, is very fundamental. What I'm holding in my files is data. What you are usually asking for is information. I always regarded information as those sec- tions of the data which are needed in order to make a decision- and for that, let me admit it, for most decisions my data was simply unsuitable. Remember the time we were trying to find the bottlenecks?" He looks at each of us in turn. "It took me four days to admit that I simply couldn't find the answer. What I started to realize is that information is something else. Informa- tion is the answer to the question asked. The more I am able to do it, the more a part of the team I become.
"This bottleneck concept has really helped me to move along these lines. Let's face it, today the plant obeys a schedule that's. released from the computer.
"What's my wish, you ask? I want to develop a system that'll help in what Bob wants to do, that will help to shrink drastically the time and effort needed to engineer a sale, as he calls it. I want to develop a system to help Stacey manage the buffers, and even to help in managing the local improvements. I want to develop a system to help Lou measure, in a much more beneficial way, the local performance. You see, like everyone else, I have my dreams."
It's quite late, the kids are already fast asleep. Julie and I are sitting in the kitchen; we're each holding a warm cup of tea in our hands. I tell her about what happened today at the plant. She seems to be more than mildly interested; she actually claims that she finds it fascinating.
I love it. Rehashing the day's events with Julie really helps me to digest it all.
"So what do you think?" I ask her at last.
"I'm starting to see what Jonah meant when he warned you about increasing the dependency," she replies.
That makes me think for a while, but I still can't see the connection. "What do you mean?"
"Maybe I'm wrong, but you gave me the impression that you're not too sure that Lou'll be able to come up with a good, new measurement system."
"That's right," I smile.
"Is a new measurement system important for you?"
"Are you kidding? I don't know of another single thing which is as important as that."
"So if it weren't for Jonah's refusal to continue giving you pointed questions, am I right in assuming that you'd be on the phone right now, trying to squeeze more hints from him?"
"Most probably," I admit. "It's certainly important enough."
"And what about Bob's idea," she continues. "Do you regard that as something important?"
"If he pulls it off it'll be a revolution. It'll guarantee that we take a big share of the market. Definitely our problem with get- ting more sales will be over."
"And how much hope do you have that he'll be able to do it?"
"Not much, I'm afraid. Ah. I see your point. Yeah, I would have run to Jonah with these questions as well. And the same with the issues that Stacey and Ralph have raised, each one of them is essential."
"And how many more things will pop up when you start to manage the division?"
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"You're right, Julie. And Jonah is also right. I felt it today as well. When each one of them spelled out their immediate dream in such a tangible form, I wondered what mine is. The only thing that kept popping into my mind is that I must learn how to man- age. But where on earth am I going to find the answer to Jonah's question: What are the techniques needed for management? I don't know, Julie. What do you think I should do now?"
"All the people back at the plant owe you a lot," she says, stroking my hair. "They're proud of you, and rightfully so. You've created quite a team. But this team is going to be broken up in two months when we go to the division. Why don't you spend the time that's left sitting with them and going over your question. They'll have ample time after you're gone to work on their problems. Anyhow, it'll be much easier for them to achieve what they want to achieve if you have the management tech- niques."
I look at her in silence. Here is my real, true advisor.
So I've done what my advisor suggested. I gathered them all together and explained that if each of them wants to be free to concentrate on his pet project the division must be well run, and in order for the division to be well run the division manager must know what he is doing. And since I, frankly, don't have the foggi- est idea of how to run a division they had better put their brains to helping me. Thus, we are going to devote the afternoons- provided of course that no special emergency comes up-to help me analyze how the division should be run.