The Goal

165

"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.