The Goal

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people around. Which means the robots had to increase opera- tional expense.

Okay, but efficiencies have gone up because of the robots. So maybe that's been our salvation. When efficiencies go up, the cost-per-part has to come down.

But did the cost really come down? How could the cost-per- part go down if operational expense went up?

By the time I make it to the plant, it's one o'clock, and I still haven't thought of a satisfactory answer. I'm still thinking about it as I walk through the office doors. The first thing I do is stop by Lou's office.

"Have you got a couple minutes?" I ask.

"Are you kidding?" he says. "I've been looking for you all morning."

He reaches for a pile of paper on the corner of his desk. I know it's got to be the report he has to send up to division.

"No, I don't want to talk about that right now," I tell him. "I've got something more important on my mind."

I watch his eyebrows go up.

"More important than this report for Peach?"

"Infinitely more important than that," I tell him.

Lou shakes his head as he leans back in his swivel chair and gestures for me to have a seat.

"What can I do for you?"

"After those robots out on the floor came on line, and we got most of the bugs out and all that," I say, "what happened to our sales?"

Lou's eyebrows come back down again; he's leaning forward and squinting at me over his bifocals.

"What kind of question is that?" he asks.

"A smart one, I hope," I say. "I need to know if the robots had any impact on our sales. And specifically if there was any increase after they came on line."

"Increase? Just about all of our sales have been level or in a downhill slide since last year."

I'm a little irritated.

"Well, would you mind just checking?" I ask.

He holds up his hands in surrender.

"Not at all. Got all the time in the world."

Lou turns to his computer, and after looking through some