The Goal: a process of Ongoing Improvement

parts. Then the two of us head for the bottlenecks.
Finally we’re walking back to the office. Glancing at Bob’s face, I can tell
he’s still bothered by what happened.
"What’s wrong? You look unconvinced about all this,’’ I say.
"Al, what’s going to happen if we repeatedly have people break up process
runs to run parts for the bottlenecks?’’ he asks.
"We should be able to avoid idle time on the bottlenecks,’’ I say.
"But what’s going to happen to our costs on the other 98 percent of the work
centers we got here?’’ he asks.
"Right now, don’t worry about it. Let’s just keep the bottlenecks busy,’’ I
say. "Look, I’m convinced you did the right thing back there. Aren’t you?’’
"Maybe I did the right thing,’’ he says, "but I had to break all the rules to do
it.’’

---

"Then the rules had to be broken,’’ I say. "And maybe they weren’t good
rules to begin with. You know we’ve always had to break up process runs for
expediency to get orders shipped. The difference between then and now is
that now we know to do it ahead of time, before the external pressure comes.
We’ve got to have faith in what we know.’’
Bob nods in agreement. But I know he’ll only believe the proof. Maybe I’m
the same, if I’m honest about it.
A few days pass while we develop a system to cure the problem. But at eight
o’clock on Friday morning, at the beginning of first shift, I’m in the cafeteria
watching the employees wander in. With me is Bob Donovan.
After our earlier misunderstanding, I decided that the more people who know
about the bottlenecks and how important they are, the better off we’ll be.
We’re holding fifteen-minute meetings with everyone working in the plant,
both foremen and hourly people. This afternoon, we’ll do the same thing with
people working second shift, and I’ll come in late tonight to talk to the third
shift as well. When we’ve got everybody this morning, I get up in front of
them and talk.
"All of you know that this plant has been in a downward slide for some time.
What you don’t know is that we’re in the position to begin to change that,’’ I
tell them. "You’re here in this meeting because we’re introducing a new
system today ...a system which we think will make the plant more productive
than it’s been in the past. In the next few minutes, I’m going to explain
briefly some of the background that made us develop this new system. And
then Bob Donovan is going to tell you how it works.’’
Trying to keep meetings to fifteen minutes doesn’t give us the time to tell
them very much. But using the analogy of an hourglass, I do explain briefly
about the bottlenecks and why we have to give priority to parts on the heat-
treat and NCX-10 routings. For the things I can’t take time to tell them, there
is going to be a newsletter, which will replace the old plant employee paper,
and which will report developments and progress in the plant.
Anyway, I turn over the microphone to Donovan and he tells them how we’re

---

going to prioritize all materials in the plant so everybody knows what to work
on.
"By the end of today, all work-in-process on the floor will be marked by a tag
with a number on it,’’ he says and holds up some samples. "The tag will be
one of two colors: red or green.
"A red marker means the work attached to it has first priority. The red tags go
on any materials needing to be processed by a bottleneck. When a batch of