The Goal: a process of Ongoing Improvement

parts have been getting to final assembly faster. It’s as if we’ve created an
"express lane’’ through the plant for bottleneck parts.
After putting Q.C. in front of the bottlenecks, we discovered that about
five percent of the parts going into the NCX-10 and about seven percent

---

going into heat-treat did not conform to quality requirements. If those
percentages hold true in the future, we’ll effectively have gained that time for
additional throughput.
The new policy of having people cover the bottlenecks on lunch breaks
has also gone into effect. We’re not sure how much we’ve gained from that,
because we didn’t know how much we were losing before. At least we’re
doing the right thing now. But I have heard reports that from time to time the
NCX-10 is idle— and it happens when there is nobody on break. Donovan is
supposed to be looking into the causes.
The combination of these has allowed us to ship our most critical orders
and to ship a few more of them than normal. But I know we’re not going fast
enough. A few weeks ago we were limping along; now we’re walking, but
we ought to be jogging.
Glancing back toward the 
monitor
, I see the eyes are upon me.
"Listen...I know we’ve taken a step in the right direction,’’ I explain. "But we
have to accelerate the progress. It’s good that we got twelve shipments out
last week. But we’re still having some customer orders become past due. It’s
not as many, I’ll grant you, but we still have to do better. We really shouldn’t
have 
any
late orders.’’
Everyone walks away from the
computer
and joins me around the table. Bob
Donovan starts telling me how they’re planning some refinements on what
we’ve already done.
I say, "Bob, those are fine, but they’re minor. How are we coming on the
other suggestions Jonah made?’’
Bob glances away.
"Well...we’re looking into them,’’ he says.
I say, "I want recommendations on offloading the bottlenecks ready for our
Wednesday staff meeting.’’

---

Bob nods, but says nothing.
"You’ll have them for us?’’ I ask.
"Whatever it takes,’’ he says.
That afternoon in my office, I have a meeting with Elroy Langston, our
Q.C. manager, and Barbara Penn, who handles employee communications.
Barbara writes the newsletters, which are now explaining the background and
reasons for the changes taking place in the plant. Last week, we distributed
the first issue. I put her together with Langston to have her work on a new
project.
After parts exit the bottlenecks, they often tend to look almost identical to
the parts going 
into 
the bottlenecks. Only a close examination by a trained
eye will detect the difference in some cases. The problem is how to make it
easy for the employee to tell the two apart... and to make it possible for the
employee to treat the post-bottleneck parts so more of them make it to
assembly and are shipped as quality products. Langston and Penn are in my
office to talk about what they’ve come up with.
"We already have the red tags,’’ says Penn. "So that tells us the part is on
a bottleneck routing. What we need is a simple way to show people the parts
they need to treat with special attention —the ones they need to treat like
gold.’’
"That’s a suitable comparison,’’ I tell her.
She says, "So what if we simply mark the tags with pieces of yellow tape
after the parts are finished by the bottlenecks. The tape would tell people on
sight that these are the parts you treat like gold. In conjunction with this, I’ll
do an internal promotion to spread the word about what the tape means. For
media, we might use some sort of bulletin board poster, an announcement
that the foremen would read to the hourly people, maybe a banner which
would hang in the plant—those kinds of things.’’

---

"As long as the tape can be added without slowing down the bottlenecks,
that sounds fine,’’ I say.
"I’m sure we can find a way to do it so it doesn’t interfere,’’ says Langston.
"Good,’’ I say. "One other concern of mine is that I don’t want this to be just
a lot of promotion.’’
"That’s perfectly understood,’’ says Langston with a smile. "Right now,
we’re systematically identifying the causes of quality problems on the
bottlenecks and in subsequent processing. Once we know where to aim, we’ll
be having specific procedures developed for bottleneck-routed parts and
processes. And once they’re established, we’ll set up training sessions so
people can learn those procedures. But that’s obviously going to take some
time. For the short term, we’re specifying that the existing procedures be
double-checked for accuracy on the bottleneck routes.’’
We talk that over for a few minutes, but basically all of it seems sound to me.
I tell them to proceed full speed and to keep me informed of what’s
happening.
"Nice job,’’ I say to both of them as they stand up to leave. "By the way,
Roy, I thought Bob Donovan was going to sit in on this meeting.’’
"That man is hard to catch these days,’’ says Langston. "But I’ll brief him on
what we talked about.’’
Just then, the phone rings. Reaching with one hand to answer it, I wave to
Langston and Penn with the other as they walk out the door.
"Hi, this is Donovan.’’
"It’s too late to call in sick,’’ I tell him. "Don’t you know you just missed a
meeting?’’
That doesn’t faze him.

---

"Al, have I got something to show you!’’ says Bob. "Got time to take a little
walk?’’
"Yeah, I guess so. What’s this all about?’’
"Well...I’ll tell you when you get here,’’ says Bob. "Meet me on the receiving
dock.’’
I walk down to the dock, where I see Bob; he’s standing there waving to me
as if I might miss him. Which would be impossible. There is a flat-bed truck
backed up to the dock, and in the middle of the bed is a large object on a skid.
The object is covered by a gray canvas tarp which has ropes tying it down. A
couple of guys are working with an overhead crane to move the thing off of
the truck. They’re raising it into the air as I walk up to Bob. He cups his
hands around his mouth.
"Easy there,’’ Bob calls as he watches the big gray thing sway back and forth.
Slowly, the crane maneuvers the cargo back from the truck and lowers it
safely to the concrete floor. The workers release the hoist chains. Bob walks
over and has them untie the ropes holding down the canvas.
"We’ll have it off in a minute,’’ Bob assures me.
I stand there patiently, but Bob can’t refrain from helping. When all the ropes
are untied, Donovan takes hold of the tarp and, with a flair of gusto, flings it
off of what it’s concealing.
"Ta-da!’’ he says as he stands back and gestures to what has to be one of the
oldest pieces of equipment I’ve ever seen.
"What the hell is it?’’ I ask.
"It’s a Zmegma,’’ he says.
He takes a rag and wipes off some of the grime.

---

"They don’t build ’em like this anymore,’’ he says.
"I’m very glad to hear that,’’ I say.
"Al,’’ he says, "the Zmegma is just the machine we need!’’
"That looks like it might have been state-of-the-art for 1942. How’s it going
to help us?’’
"Well...I admit it ain’t no match for the NCX-10. But if you take this baby
right here,’’ he says patting the Zmegma, "and one of those Screwmeisters
over there,’’ he says pointing across the way, "and that other machine off in
the corner, together they can do all the things the NCX-10 can do.’’
I glance around at the different machines. All of them are old and idle. I step
closer to the Zmegma to look it over.
"So this must be one of the machines you told Jonah we sold to make way for
the inventory holding pen,’’ I say.
"You got it,’’ he says.
"It’s practically an antique. All of them are,’’ I say, referring to the other
machines. "Are you sure they can give us acceptable quality?’’
"It isn’t automated equipment, so with human error we might have a few
more mistakes,’’ says Bob. "But if you want capacity, this is a quick way to
get it.’’
I smile. "It’s looking better and better. Where did you find this thing?’’
"I called a buddy of mine this morning up at our South End plant,’’ he says.
"He told me he still had a couple of these sitting around and he’d have no
problem parting with one of them. So I grabbed a guy from maintenance and
we took a ride up to have a look.’’
I ask him, "What did it cost us?’’

---

"The rental fee on the truck to haul it down here,’’ says Bob. "The guy at
South End told us just to go ahead and take it. He’ll write it off as scrap. With
all the paperwork he’d have to do, it was too much trouble to sell it to us.’’
"Does it still work?’’
"It did before we left,’’ says Bob. "Let’s find out.’’
The maintenance man connects the power cable to an outlet on a nearby steel
column. Bob reaches for the power switch and hits the ON button. For a
second, nothing happens. Then we hear the slow, gathering whirr from
somewhere in the guts of the old machine. Poofs of dust blow out of the
antique fan housing. Bob turns to me with a dumb grin on his big face.
"Guess we’re in business,’’ he says.

---

23
Rain is beating at the windows of my office. Outside, the world is gray
and blurred. It’s the middle of a middle-of-the-week morning. In front of me
are some so-called "Productivity Bulletins’’ put out by Hilton Smyth which
I’ve come across in my inbasket. I haven’t been able to make myself read
past the first paragraph of the one on top. Instead, I’m gazing at the rain and
pondering the situation with my wife.
Julie and I went out on our "date’’ that Saturday night, and we actually
had a good time. It was nothing exotic. We went to a movie, we got a bite to
eat afterwards, and for the heck of it we took a drive through the park on the
way home. Very tame. But it was exactly what we needed. It was good just to
relax
with her. I admit that at first I felt kind of like we were back in high
school or something. But, after a while, I decided that wasn’t such a bad
feeling. I brought her back to her parents at two in the morning, and we made
out in the driveway until her old man turned on the porch light.
Since that night, we’ve continued to see each other. A couple of times last
week, I made the drive up to see her. Once, we met halfway at a restaurant.
I’ve been dragging myself to work in the morning, but with no complaints.
We’ve had fun together.
By some unspoken agreement, neither of us talk about divorce or
marriage. The subject has only come up once, which happened when we
talked about the kids and agreed they should stay with Julie and her folks as
soon as school ends. I tried then to push us into some answers, but the old
argument syndrome began to brew quickly, and I backed off to preserve the
peace.
It’s a strange state of limbo we’re in. It almost feels the way it did before
we got married and "settled down.’’ Only now, we’re both quite familiar to
each other. And there is this storm which has gone south for a while, but

---

which is sure to swing back someday.
A soft tap at the door interrupts this meditation. I see Fran’s face peeking
around the edge of the door.
"Ted Spencer is outside,’’ she says. "He says he needs to talk to you about
something.’’
"What about?’’
Fran steps into the office and closes the door behind her. She quickly comes
over to my desk and whispers to me.
"I don’t know, but I heard on the grapevine that he had an argument with
Ralph Nakamura about an hour ago,’’ she says.
"Oh,’’ I say. "Okay, thanks for the warning. Send him in.’’
A moment later Ted Spencer comes in. He looks mad. I ask him what’s
happening down in heat-treat.
He says, "Al, you’ve got to get that computer guy off my back.’’
"You mean Ralph? What have you got against him?’’
"He’s trying to turn me into some kind of clerk or something,’’ says Ted.
"He’s been coming around and asking all kinds of dumb questions. Now he
wants me to keep some kind of special records on what happens in heat-
treat.’’
"What kind of records?’’ I ask.
"I don’t know...he wants me to keep a detailed log of everything that goes in
and out of the furnaces . . . the times we put ’em in, the times we take ’em
out, how much time between heats, all that stuff,’’ says Ted. "And I’ve got
too much to do to be bothered with all that. In addition to heat-treat, I’ve got
three other work centers I’m responsible for.’’

---

"Why does he want this time log?’’ I ask.
"How should I know? I mean, we’ve already got enough paperwork to satisfy
anybody, as far as I’m concerned,’’ says Ted. "I think Ralph just wants to
play games with numbers. If he’s got the time for it, then fine, let him do it in
his own department. I’ve got the productivity of 
my
department to worry
about.’’
Wanting to end this, I nod to him. "Okay, I hear you. Let me look into it.’’
"Will you keep him out of my area?’’ asks Ted.
"I’ll let you know, Ted.’’
After he’s gone, I have Fran track down Ralph Nakamura for me. What’s
puzzling me is that Ralph is not what you’d call an abrasive person, and yet
he sure seems to have made Ted very upset.
"You wanted to see me?’’ asks Ralph from the door. "Yeah, come on in
and sit down,’’ I say to him. He seats himself in front of my desk.
"So tell me what you did to light Ted Spencer’s fuse,’’ I say to him.
Ralph rolls his eyes and says, "All I wanted from him was to keep an
accurate record of the actual times for each heat of parts in the furnace. I
thought it was a simple enough request.’’
"What prompted you to ask him?’’
"I had a couple of reasons,’’ says Ralph. "One of them is that the data we
have on heat-treat seems to be very inaccurate. And if what you say is true,
that this operation is so vital to the plant, then it seems to me we ought to
have valid statistics on it.’’
"What makes you think our data is so inaccurate?’’ I ask.

---

"Because after I saw the total on last week’s shipments I was kind of
bothered by something. A few days ago on my own, I did some projections of
how many shipments we would actually be able to make last week based on
the output of parts from the bottlenecks. According to those projections, we
should have been able to do about eighteen to twenty shipments instead of
twelve. The projections were so far off that I figured at first I must have made
a big mistake. So I took a closer look, double-checked my math and couldn’t
find anything wrong. Then I saw that the estimates for the NCX-10 were
within the ballpark. But for heattreat, there was a big difference.’’
"And that’s what made you think that the data base must be in error,’’ I say.
"Right,’’ he says. "So I went down to talk to Spencer. And, ah....’’
"And what?’’
"Well, I noticed some funny things were happening,’’ he says. "He was kind
of tight-lipped when I started asking him questions. Finally, I just happened
to ask him when the parts that were being treated in the furnace at the
moment were going to be finished. I thought I’d get a time on an actual heat
by myself, just to see if we were close to the standard. He said the parts could
come out at around 3 P.M. So I went away, and came back at three. But
nobody was around. I waited for about ten minutes, then went to look for
Ted. When I found him, he said he had the furnace helpers working
somewhere else and they’d get around to unloading the furnace in a little
while. I didn’t think much about it. Then around 5:30, as I was leaving for the
day, I decided I’d go by the furnace to ask what time the parts had actually
come out. But the same parts were still in there.’’
"Two-and-a-half hours after they 
could
have come out, they hadn’t been
unloaded?’’ I ask.
"That’s right,’’ says Ralph. "So I found Sammy, the secondshift foreman
down there, and asked him what was going on. He told me he was short-
handed that night, and they’d get to it later. He said it didn’t hurt the parts to
stay in the furnace. While I was there, he shut off the burners, but I found out
later that the parts didn’t come out until about eight o’clock. I didn’t mean to

---

start trouble, but I’d thought if we recorded the actual times per heat, we’d at
least have some realistic figures to use for estimating. You see, I asked some
of the hourly people down there and they told me those kinds of delays
happen a lot in heat-treat.’’
"No kidding,’’ I say. "Ralph...I want you to take all the measurements down
there that you need. Don’t worry about Ted. And do the same thing on the
NCX-10.’’
"Well, I’d like to, but it’s kind of a chore,’’ he says. "That’s why I wanted
Ted and the others just to jot down the times and all.’’
I say, "Okay, we’ll take care of that. And, ah... thanks very much.’’
"You’re welcome,’’ he says.
"By the way, what was the other reason?’’ I ask him. "You mentioned you
had more than one.’’
"Oh, well, it’s probably not that important.’’
"No, tell me,’’ I say.
"I don’t really know if we can do it or not,’’ says Ralph, "but it occurred to
me we might find a way to use the bottlenecks to predict when we’ll be able
to ship an order.’’
I contemplate that possibility.
"Sounds interesting,’’ I tell him. "Let me know what you come up with.’’
Bob Donovan’s ears are on fire by the time I’ve finished telling him what
Ralph discovered about heat-treat on his own. I’m very upset about this. He’s
sitting in a chair in my office while I walk in circles in front of him.
But when I’m done, Bob tells me, "Al, the trouble is there is nothing for
the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up

---

one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours,
or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and
twiddle their thumbs?’’
"I don’t care what they do between times as long as they get the parts in
and out of the furnace pronto,’’ I say. "We could have done almost another
batch of parts in the five hours of waiting for people to finish what they were
doing elsewhere and change loads.’’
"All right,’’ says Bob. "How about this: we loan the people to other areas
while the parts cook, but as soon as the time is up, we make sure we call them
back immediately so—’’
"No, because what’s going to happen is everybody will be very
conscientious about it for two days, and then it’ll slip back to the way it is
now,’’ I say. "I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and
unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The first ones I want
assigned there are foremen who are responsible full-time for what happens
down there. And tell Ted Spencer that the next time I see him, he’d better
know what’s going on in heat-treat or I’ll kick his ass.’’
"You bet,’’ says Bob. "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe
three people per shift.’’
"Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck
costs us?’’
"Okay, I’m with you,’’ he says. "Tell you the truth, what Ralph found out
about heat-treat is a lot like what I found out on my own about those rumors
of idle time on the NCX-10.’’
"What’s going on there?’’
Bob tells me that, indeed, it’s true the NCX-10 is sitting idle for as much as
half an hour or more at a time. But the problem is not lunch breaks. If the
NCX-10 is being set up and lunch time rolls around, the two guys stay until
the setup is completed. Or, if the setup is a long one, they spell each other, so

---

one goes and eats while the other continues with the setup. We’re covered
fine during breaks. But if the machine stops, say, in the middle of the
afternoon, it may sit there for twenty, thirty, forty minutes or so before
anyone gets around to starting a new setup. The reason is the setup people are
busy with 
other
machines, with non-bottlenecks.
"Then let’s do the same thing on the NCX-10 as I want to do on heat-treat,’’ I
tell Bob. "Let’s get a machinist and a helper and have them permanently
stationed at the NCX-10. When it stops, they can get to work on it
immediately.’’
"That’s just dandy with me,’’ says Bob. "But you know how it’s going to
look on paper. It’s going to seem like we increased the direct labor content of
the parts coming out of heat-treat and the NCX-10.’’
I slump into the chair behind my desk.
"Let’s fight one battle at a time,’’ I say.
The next morning, Bob comes to the staff meeting with his
recommendations. They basically consist of four actions. The first two
concern what he and I talked about the day before—dedicating a machinist
and helper to the NCX-10, and stationing a foreman and two workers at the
heat-treat furnaces. The assignments would apply to all three shifts. The other
two recommendations concern offloading the bottlenecks. Bob has
determined if we could activate one each of these old machines—the
Zmegma and the two others—just one shift a day, we could add eighteen
percent to the output of parts of the type produced by the NCX-10. Last of
all, is that we take some of the parts queued at heat-treat and send them out to
the vendor across town.
As he’s presenting these, I’m wondering what Lou is going to say. As it
happens, Lou offers little resistance.
"Knowing what we know now,’’ says Lou, "it’s perfectly legitimate for us to
assign people to the bottlenecks if it will increase our throughput. We can
certainly justify the cost if it increases sales—and thereby increases cash

---

flow. My question is, where are you going to get the people?’’
Bob says we could call them back from layoff.
"No, you can’t. See, the problem we have,’’ says Lou, "is that the division
has a recall freeze in effect. We can’t recall without their approval.’’
"Do we have people in the plant who can do these jobs?’’ asks Stacey.
"You mean steal people from other areas?’’ asks Bob.
"Sure,’’ I say. "Take people from the non-bottlenecks. By definition, they
have excess capacity anyway.’’
Bob thinks about it for a minute. Then he explains that finding helpers for
heat-treat is no big deal. And we do have some old machinists, who haven’t
been laid off because of seniority, who are qualified to run the Zmegma and
the other two machines. Establishing a two-person set-up crew on the NCX-
10, however, has him worried.
"Who’s going to set up the other machines?’’ he asks.
"The helpers on the other machines know enough to set up their own
equipment,’’ I say.
"Well, I guess we can try it,’’ says Bob. "But what happens if stealing people
turns non-bottlenecks into bottlenecks?’’
I tell him, "The important thing is to maintain the flow. If we take a worker
away, and we can’t maintain the flow, then we’ll put the worker back and
steal a body from someplace else. And if we still can’t keep the flow going,
then we’ll have no choice but to go to a division and insist that we either go
to overtime or call a few people back from layoff.’’
"Okay,’’ says Bob. "I’ll go for it.’’
Lou gives us his blessing.

---

"Good. Let’s do it,’’ I say. "And, Bob, make sure the people you pick are
good. From now on, we put only our best people to work on the
bottlenecks.’’
And so it is done.
The NCX-10 gets a dedicated setup crew. The Zmegma and the other
machines go to work. The outfit across town is only too glad to take our
surplus parts for heat-treating. And in our own heat-treat department, two
people per shift are assigned to stand by, ready to load and unload parts from
the furnaces. Donovan juggles the work-center responsibilities so heat-treat
has a foreman there at all times.
For a foreman, heat-treat seems like a very small kingdom, not much of a
prize. There is nothing intrinsically attractive about running that operation,
and having only two people to manage makes it seem like no big deal. To
prevent it from seeming like a demotion to them, I make a point to go down
there periodically on each of the shifts. In talking to the foreman, I drop some
rather direct hints that the rewards will be great for anyone who can improve
the output of heat-treated parts.
Shortly thereafter, some amazing things happen. Very early one morning, I’m
down there at the end of third shift. A young guy named Mike Haley is the
foreman. He’s a big black man whose arms always look as though they’re
going to burst the sleeves on his shirts. We’ve noticed that over the past week
he’s pushed about ten percent more parts through heat-treat on his shift than
the others have. Records are not usually set on third shift, and we’re starting
to wonder if it’s Mike’s biceps that are doing the trick. Anyway, I go down
there to try to learn what he’s doing.
As I walk up, I see the two helpers are not just standing around with nothing
to do. They’re moving parts. In front of the furnaces are two tightly organized
stacks of work-in-process, which the helpers are building. I call Mike over
and ask him what they’re doing.
"They’re getting ready,’’ he says.

---

"What do you mean?’’
"They’re getting ready for when we have to load one of the furnaces again,’’
he says. "The parts in each stack are all treated at the same temperature.’’
"So you’re splitting and overlapping some batches,’’ I say.
"Sure,’’ he says. "I know we’re not really supposed to do that, but you need
the parts, right?’’
"Sure, no problem. You’re still doing the treating according to the priority
system?’’ I ask.
"Oh, yeah,’’ he says. "Come here. Let me show you.’’
Mike leads me past the control console for the furnaces to a worn old
battleship of a desk. He finds the computer print-out for the week’s most
important overdue orders.
"See, look at number 22,’’ he says pointing to it. "We need fifty of the high
stress RB-dash-11’s. They get treated at a 1200– degree temperature cycle.
But fifty of them won’t fill up the furnace. So we look down and what do we
see here but item number 31, which calls for 300 fitted retaining rings. Those
also take a 1200–degree cycle.’’
"So you’ll fill up the furnace with as many of the retaining rings after you’ve
loaded the fifty of the first item,’’ I say.
"Yeah, that’s it,’’ says Mike. "Only we do the sorting and stacking in advance
so we can load the furnace faster.’’
"That’s good thinking,’’ I tell him.
"Well, we could do even better if I could get someone to listen to an idea I
got,’’ he says.

---

"What do you have in mind?’’
"Well, right now, it takes anywhere up to an hour or so to change a furnace
load using the crane or doing it by hand. We could cut that down to a couple
of minutes if we had a better system.’’ He points to the furnaces. "Each one
of those has a table which the parts sit on. They slide in and out on rollers. If
we could get some steel plate and maybe a little help from engineering, we
could make those tables interchangeable. That way we could stack a load of