"You mean spare parts?" asks Bob.
"I mean anything that isn't within the current demand," he says. "Because what happens when you build inventory now that you won't sell for months in the future? You are sacrificing pres- ent money for future money; the question is, can your cash flow sustain it? In your case, absolutely not."
"He's right," admits Lou.
"Then make the bottlenecks work only on what will contrib- ute to throughput today ... not nine months from now," says Jonah. "That's one way to increase the capacity of the bottle- necks. The other way you increase bottleneck capacity is to take some of the load off the bottlenecks and give it to non-bottle- necks."
I ask, "Yeah, but how do we do that?"
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"That's why I was asking those questions when we were out in the plant," he says. "Do all of the parts have to be processed by the bottleneck? If not, the ones which don't can be shifted to non- bottlenecks for processing. And the result is you gain capacity on your bottleneck. A second question: do you have other machines to do the same process? If you have the machines, or if you have a vendor with the right equipment, you can offload from the bottle- neck. And, again, you gain capacity which enables you to increase throughput."
I come into the kitchen for breakfast the next morning and sit down to a big steaming bowl of my mother's oatmeal... which I have hated ever since I was a kid. I'm staring at the oatmeal (and the oatmeal is staring back) when Mom/Grandma asks, "So how did everything go last night?"
I say, "Well, actually, you and the kids were on the right track at dinner."
"We were?" asks Dave.
"We need to make the Herbies go faster," I say. "And last night Jonah pointed out some ways to do that. So we learned a lot."
"Well, now, isn't that good news," says my mother.
She pours a cup of coffee for herself and sits down at the table. It's quiet for a moment. Then I notice that Mom and the kids are eyeing each other.
"Something wrong?" I ask.
"Their mother called again last night while you were gone," says my mother.
Julie has been calling the kids regularly since she left. But for whatever reason of her own, she still won't tell them where she is. I'm debating whether to hire a private detective to find out where she's hiding.
"Sharon says she heard something when she was on the phone talking," says my mother.
I look at Sharon.
"You know that music Grandpa always listens to?" she says.
I say, "You mean Grandpa Barnett?"
"Uh- huh, you know," she says, "the music that puts you to sleep, with the-what are they called?"
"Violins," says Dave.
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"Right, the violins," says Sharon. "Well, when Mom wasn't talking, I heard that on the phone last night."
"I heard 'em too," says Dave.
"Really?" I say. "That's very interesting. Thank you both for noticing that. Maybe I'll give Grandma and Grandpa Barnett an- other call today."
I finish my coffee and stand up.
"Alex, you haven't even touched your oatmeal," says Mom.
I lean down and kiss her on the cheek. "Sorry, I'm late for school."
I wave to the kids and hurry to grab my briefcase.
"Well, I'll just have to save it so you can eat it tomorrow," says my mother.
Driving to the plant, I pass the motel where Jonah stayed last night. I know he's long gone-he had a 6:30 A.M. flight to catch. I offered to pick him up this morning and drive him to the airport, but (lucky for me) he refused and said he'd take a cab.
As soon as I get to the office, I tell Fran to set up a meeting with the staff. Meanwhile, I start to write down a list of the actions Jonah suggested last night. But Julie comes to mind and won't leave. I close my office door and sit down at my desk. I find the number for Julie's parents and dial it.
The first day after Julie left, her parents called to ask me if I had heard anything. They haven't called back since. A day or two ago, I tried getting in touch with them to find out if they had heard anything. I called in the afternoon and I talked to Julie's mother, Ada. She said she didn't know where Julie was. Even then, I didn't quite believe her.
Now Ada answers again.
"Hi, this is Alex," I tell her. "Let me talk to Julie."
Ada is flustered. "Well, um, ah... she isn't here."
"Yes, she is."
I hear Ada sigh.
"She is there, isn't she," I say.
Finally Ada says, "She does not want to talk to you."
"How long, Ada? How long has she been there? Were you lying to me even that Sunday night when I called?"
"No, we were not lying to you," she says indignantly. "We had no idea where she was. She was with her friend, Jane, for a few days."
"Sure, and what about the other day when I called?"
"Julie simply asked me not to say where she was," says Ada, "and I shouldn't even be telling you now. She wants to be by herself for a while."
"Ada, I need to speak with her," I say.
"She will not come to the phone," says Ada.
"How do you know until you've asked?"
The phone on Ada's end is put down on the table. Footsteps fade away and return a minute later.
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"She says she'll call you when she's ready," says Ada.
"What does that mean?"
"If you hadn't neglected her all these years, you wouldn't be in this situation," she says.
"Ada- "
"Good- bye," she says.
She hangs up the phone. I try calling back right away, but there is no answer. After a few minutes, I force my mind back to getting ready to talk to the staff.
At ten o'clock, the meeting starts in my office.
"I'd like to know what you think about what you heard last night," I say. "Lou, what was your reaction?"
Lou says, "Well... I just couldn't believe what he was say- ing about an hour of a bottleneck. I went home last night and thought it over to see if it all made sense. And, actually, we were wrong about a lost hour of a bottleneck costing $2,700."
"We were?" I ask.
"Only eighty percent of our products flow through the bot- tlenecks," says Lou as he takes a piece of note paper from his shirt pocket. "So the truer cost ought to be eighty percent of our operating expense, and that comes to $2,188 an hour-not
$2,735."
"Oh," I say. "I suppose you're right."
Then Lou smiles.
"Nevertheless," he says, "I have to admit it was quite an eye- opener to look at the situation from that perspective."
"I agree," I say. "What about the rest of you?"
I go from person to person around the office asking for reac- tions, and we're all pretty much in agreement. Even so, Bob seems hesitant about committing to some of the changes Jonah was talking about. And Ralph isn't sure yet where he fits in. But Stacey is a strong advocate.