The Goal: a process of Ongoing Improvement

part of the town’s economic future will be decided tomorrow. Most of them
haven’t the slightest interest in the plant or what we’ve done here—except if
UniWare closes us, they’ll be mad and scared. And if we stay open? Nobody
will care. Nobody will even know what we went through.
Well, win or lose, I know I did my best.
When I get to Julie’s parents’ house, Sharon and Dave run up to the car. After
getting out of my suit and into some "offduty’’ clothes, I spend about an hour
throwing a frisbee to the two kids. When they’ve exhausted me, Julie has the
idea the two of us should go out to dinner. I get the feeling she wants to talk
to me. I clean up a little and off we go. As we’re driving along, we pass the

---

park.
"Al, why don’t we stop for awhile,’’ says Julie.
"How come?’’ I ask.
"The last time we were here we never finished our walk,’’ she says.
So I pull over. We get out and walk. By and by, we come to the bench by the
river, and the two of us sit down.
"What’s your meeting about tomorrow?’’ she asks. "It’s a plant performance
review,’’ I say. "The division will decide the future of the plant.’’
"Oh. What do you think they’ll say?’’
"We didn’t quite make what I promised Bill Peach,’’ I say. "One set of
numbers doesn’t look as good as it truly is because of the cost-of-products
standards. You remember me telling you about some of that, don’t you?’’
She nods, I shake my head momentarily, still angry at what happened as a
result of the audit.
"But even with that, we still had a good month. It just doesn’t show up as the
fantastic month we really had,’’ I tell her.
"You don’t think they’d still close the plant, do you?’’ she asks.
"I don’t think so,’’ I say. "A person would have to be an idiot to condemn us
just because of an increase in cost of products. Even with screwed-up
measurements, we’re making money.’’
She reaches over to take my hand and says, "It was nice of you to take me out
to breakfast that morning.’’
I smile and say, "After listening to me ramble on at five o’clock in the
morning, you deserved it.’’

---

"When you talked to me then, it made me realize how little I know about
what you do,’’ she says. "I wish you had told me more over the years.’’
I shrug. "I don’t know why I haven’t, I guess I thought you wouldn’t want to
hear it. Or I didn’t want to burden you with it.’’
"Well, I should have asked you more questions,’’ she says.
"I’m sure I didn’t give you many opportunities by working those long
hours.’’
"When you weren’t coming home those days before I left, I really took it
personally,’’ she says. "I couldn’t believe it didn’t have something to do with
me. Deep down, I thought you must be using it as an excuse to stay away
from me.’’
"No, absolutely not, Julie. When all those crises were occurring, I just kept
thinking you 
must
know how important they were,’’ I tell her. "I’m sorry. I
should have told you more.’’
She squeezes my hand.
"I’ve been thinking about some of the things you said about our marriage
when we were sitting here last time,’’ she says. "I have to say you’re right.
For a long time, we 
have
just been coasting along. In fact, we were drifting
apart. I’ve watched you get more and more wrapped up in your job as the
years have gone by. And to compensate for losing you, I got wrapped up in
things like decorating the house and spending my time with friends. We lost
sight of what was important.’’
I look at her in the sunlight. The awful frosting in her hair which she had
when I came home the day the NCX-10 went down is finally gone. It’s grown
out. Her hair is thick and straight again, and all the same dark brown.
She says, "Al, the one thing I definitely know now is that I want more of you,
not less. That’s always been the problem for me.’’

---

She turns to me with her blue eyes, and I get a long-lost feeling about her.
"I finally figured out why I haven’t wanted to go back to Bearington with
you,’’ she says. "And it isn’t just the town, although I don’t like it very much
there. It’s that since we’ve been living apart, we’ve actually spent more time
being together. I mean, when we were living in the same house, I felt as
though you took me for granted. Now you bring me flowers. You go out of
your way to be with me. You take time to do things with me and the kids. Al,
it’s been nice. I know it can’t go on this way forever—I think my parents are
getting a little tired of the arrangement—but I haven’t wanted it to end.’’
I start to feel very good.
I say, "At least we’re sure we don’t want to say good-bye.’’
"Al, I don’t know exactly what our goal is, or ought to be, but I think we
know there must be some kind of need between us,’’ she says. "I know I want
Sharon and Dave to grow up to be good people. And I want us to give each
other what we need.’’
I put my arm around her.
"For starters, that sounds worth shooting for,’’ I tell her. "Look, it’s probably
easier said than done, but I can certainly try to keep from taking you for
granted. I’d like you to come home, but unfortunately, the pressures that
caused all the problems are still going to be there. They’re just not going to
go away. I can’t ignore my job.’’
"I’ve never asked you to,’’ she says. "Just don’t ignore me or the kids. And
I’ll really try to understand your work.’’
I smile.
"You remember a long time ago, after we got married and we both had jobs,
how we’d come home and just talk to each other for a couple of hours, and
sympathize with each other about the trials and tribulations we’d suffered

---

during the day?’’ I ask. "That was nice.’’
"But then there were babies,’’ says Julie. "And, later, you started putting in
extra hours at work.’’
"Yeah, we got out of the habit,’’ I tell her. "What do you say we make a point
to do that again?’’
"That sounds terrific,’’ she says. "Look, Al, I know that leaving you must
have seemed selfish on my part. I just went crazy for a little while. I’m sorry
—’’
"No, you don’t have to be sorry,’’ I tell her. "I should have been paying
attention.’’
"But I’ll try to make it up to you,’’ she says. Then she smiles briefly and
adds, "Since we’re walking down memory lane, maybe you remember the
first fight we had, how we promised afterwards we’d always try to look at a
situation from the other’s point of view as well as our own. Well, I think for
the past couple of years we haven’t been doing that very often. I’m willing to
try it again if you are.’’
"I am too,’’ I say.
There is a long hug.
"So... you want to get married?’’ I ask her.
She leans back in my arms and says, "I’ll try anything twice.’’ "You know,
don’t you, it’s not going to be perfect,’’ I tell her. "You know we’re still
going to have fights.’’
"And I’ll probably be selfish about you from time to time,’’ she says.
"What the hell,’’ I tell her, "Let’s go to Vegas and find a justice of the
peace.’’

---

She laughs, "Are you serious?’’
"Well, I can’t go tonight,’’ I say. "I’ve got that meeting in the morning. How
about tomorrow night?’’
"You are serious!’’
"All I’ve been doing since you left is putting my paycheck in the bank. After
tomorrow it’ll definitely be time to blow some of it.’’
Julie smiles. "Okay, big spender. Let’s do it.’’

---

31
The next morning on the fifteenth floor of the UniCo building, I walk into
the conference room at a few minutes before ten o’clock. Sitting at the far
end of the long table is Hilton Smyth and sitting next to him is Neil Cravitz.
Flanking them are various staff people.
I say, "Good morning.’’
Hilton looks up at me without a smile and says, "If you close the door, we
can begin.’’
"Wait a minute. Bill Peach isn’t here yet,’’ I say. "We’re going to wait for
him, aren’t we?’’
"Bill’s not coming. He’s involved in some negotiations,’’ says Smyth.
"Then I would like this review to be postponed until he’s available,’’ I tell
him.
Smyth’s eyes get steely.
"Bill specifically told me to conduct this and to pass along my
recommendation to him,’’ says Smyth. "So if you want to make a case for
your plant, I suggest you get started. Otherwise, we’ll have to draw our own
conclusions from your report. And with that increase in cost of products Neil
has told me about, it sounds to me as if you have a little explaining to do. I,
for one, would particularly like to know why you are not observing proper
procedures for determining economical batch quantities.’’
I pace in front of them a moment before answering. The fuse to my anger has
started a slow burn. I try to put it out and think about what this means. I don’t
like the situation one bit. Peach damn well 
ought
to be here. And I was

---

expecting to be making my presentation to Frost, not his assistant. But from
the sound of it, Hilton may have set himself up with Peach to be my judge,
jury, and possibly, executioner. I decide the safest bet is to talk.
"Fine,’’ I say finally. "But before I go into my presentation of what has been
happening at my plant, let me ask you a question. Is it the goal of the
UniWare Division to reduce costs?’’
"Of course it is,’’ says Hilton impatiently.
"No, actually, that is not the goal,’’ I tell them. "The goal of UniWare is to
make money. Agreed?’’
Cravitz sits up in his chair and says, "That’s true.’’ Hilton gives me a
tentative nod.
I say, "I’m going to demonstrate to you that regardless of what our costs look
like according to standard measurements, my plant has never been in a better
position to make money.’’
And so it begins.
An hour and a half later, I’m midway through an explanation of the
effects of the bottlenecks upon inventory and throughput when Hilton stops
me.
"Okay, you’ve taken a lot of time to tell us all this, and I personally can’t
see the significance,’’ says Hilton. "Maybe at your plant you did have a
couple of bottlenecks and you discovered what they were. Well, I mean
bravo
and all that, but when I was a plant manager we dealt with bottlenecks
wandering everywhere.’’
"Hilton, we’re dealing with fundamental assumptions that are wrong,’’ I
tell him.
"I can’t see that you’re dealing with anything fundamental,’’ says Hilton.
"It’s at best simple common sense, and I’m being charitable at that.’’

---

"No, it’s more than just common sense. Because we’re doing things every
day that are in direct contradiction to the established rules most people use in
manufacturing,’’ I tell him.
"Such as?’’ asks Cravitz.
"According to the cost-accounting rules that everybody has used in the past,
we’re supposed to balance capacity with demand first, then try to maintain
the flow,’’ I say. "But instead we shouldn’t be trying to balance capacity at
all; we need excess capacity. The rule we should be following is to balance
the