The Goal

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moving the bottlenecks to the head of production, which is what I'd intended for us to do."

"Yeah, it sounds good," said Ralph. "But I have to warn you, I can't say how long it'll take before I can do all that. I mean, I can have schedule for the red-tagged materials worked out in a fairly short order. The rest of it will take awhile."

"Aw, come on, Ralphie," said Bob, "a computer wiz like you ought to be able to crank that out in no time."

"I can crank something out in no time," said Ralph, "but I'm not going to promise it'll work."

I told him, "Relax; as long as we ease the load on the milling machines, we'll be okay for the short haul. That'll give you the time to get something basic in place."

"You may feel you have the time now to relax," said Jonah, "but I have to catch a plane for Chicago in thirty-five minutes."

"Oh, shit," I muttered, automatically glancing at my watch. "I guess we'd better move."

It was not a graceful parting. Jonah and I ran out of the building, and I broke numerous speed limits-without incident- getting him to the airport.

"I have, shall we say, a special interest in plants like yours," said Jonah. "So I'd appreciate it if you'd keep me informed of what happens."

"Sure," I told him. "No problem. In fact, I'd planned on it."

"Good," said Jonah. "I'll be talking to you."

And with that he was out of the car and, with a wave, was

sprinting through the terminal doors. I didn't get a call, so I

suppose he made it.

When I go to work the next morning, we have a meeting about how to implement this approach. But before we can get down to talking about it, Bob Donovan starts waving a red flag at us.

"You know, we could be walking into a big problem," says Bob.

"What's that?" I ask.

"What happens if efficiencies all over the plant go down?" he asks.

I say, "Well, I think that's a risk we'll have to take."