The Goal

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I say, "All right, now both of you go into the other room. I'll give you ten minutes, and then we'll see which one of you comes up with the best idea to keep everyone together in the line."

"What does the winner get?" asks Dave.

"Well... anything within reason."

"Anything?" asks Sharon.

"Within reason," I repeat.

So they leave and I get about ten minutes of peace and quiet. Then I see the two faces looking around the corner.

"Ready?" I ask.

They come in and sit down at the kitchen table with me.

"Want to hear my idea?" asks Sharon.

"My idea is better," says Dave.

"It is not!" she tells him.

"Okay, enough!" I say. "What's your idea, Sharon?"

Sharon says, "A drummer."

"Pardon me?"

"You know... like in a parade," she says.

"Oh, I know what you mean," I say, realizing what she has in mind. "There aren't any gaps in a parade. Everybody is marching in step."

Sharon beams. Dave gives her a dirty look.

"So everybody's marching in step... to a beat," I say, thinking out loud. "Sure. But how do you keep the people in front of Herbie from setting a faster pace?"

"You have Herbie beat the drum," says Sharon.

I think about it and say, "Yeah, that's not bad."

"But my idea is better," says Dave.

I turn to him. "Okay, wise guy, what's your idea?"

"Tie ropes to everyone," says Dave.

"Ropes?"

"You know, like mountain climbers," he says. "You tie every- one together at the waist with one long rope. So, that way, no one could get left behind, and nobody could speed up without every- body speeding up."

I say, "Hmmm... that's very good."

It would mean that the line-which would translate to the total inventory in the plant-could never be longer than the rope. And the rope, of course, could be of a pre-determined length, which means we could control it with precision. Everyone

would have to walk at the same speed . I look at Dave, a little in awe of his creativity.

"Come to think of it, the rope makes it sound like having physical links between all the equipment," I tell him, "which is like an assembly line."

"Yeah, an assembly line," says Dave. "Didn't you tell me once that an assembly line is supposed to be the best way to make things?"

"Well, yes, it's the most efficient way to manufacture," I say. "In fact, we use that approach when we do the final assembly for most of our products. The problem is that an assembly line won't work throughout the whole plant."

"Oh," says Dave.

"But those are both good ideas you two thought up," I tell them. "In fact, if we changed each of your ideas just a little bit we'd almost have the solution suggested to us today."

"Like how?" asks Sharon.

"See, to keep the line from spreading, it actually wouldn't be necessary to keep everyone marching to exactly the same step or to keep everyone tied to the rope," I tell them. "What we really have to do is just keep the kid at the front of the line from walk- ing faster than Herbie. If we can do that, then everybody will stay together."

"So we just tie the rope from Herbie to the kid at the front," says Dave.

"Or, maybe Herbie and the boy at the front of the line have signals," says Sharon. "When the boy in front goes too fast, Herbie tells him to wait or slow down."

"That's right," I say. "Both of you figured it out."

"So what do we both win?" asks Sharon.

"What do you want?" I ask. "A pizza with everything? A night at the movies?"

They're quiet for a moment.

"The movies sound good," says Sharon, "but what I'd really like is if you could get Mom to come home again."

Now it gets very quiet.

Dave says finally, "But if you can't, we'll understand."

"Well, I'm doing my best," I say. "Meanwhile, how about the movies?"

After the kids have gone to bed, I sit up wondering for the hundredth time whether Julie will come back. Compared with