VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [105]
“Well, let me first of all say that I personally would rather be doing something else on a Saturday,” Amy began, “but our financial performance for the past quarter and the past year absolutely stinks. I have been chewed out by Nigel Furst, and in less than three weeks I am going to have to go before him with a plan to reverse the backsliding and get the business out of the dumps. As of now, I frankly do not know what to tell him. So our objective for today is to identify why so many unexpected and unwanted things have happened, why so many desirable things have not happened, and what we can do to plot a new course for the company.”
Murphy tentatively raised a hand and asked, “May I just say a few words?”
“Go ahead,” said Amy.
“If y’all will just let me cut to the chase,” said Murphy, “I can tell you what the real problem is.”
“Please. Please do tell us what the real problem is, Mr. Maguire.”
“The real problem is that the analysts in Rockville are overburdened with nonessential tasks.”
“Huh?” said Wayne. “No, come on! That’s not the real problem. The real problem – if I had to put it in a nutshell – is variation! Variation in all its many forms!”
“It’s not the variation per se,” said Kurt, “it’s dealing with the variation. It’s that we have attempted to instill a Lean Six Sigma culture throughout the company, but we don’t have the proper black-belt to green-belt ratio. That’s the real problem.”
“What?” asked Garth. “Excuse me, but isn’t it perfectly obvious what the real problem is? We’re losing customers! Our sales are declining!”
“Look, I don’t know if this is the so-called real problem,” said Jayro, “but I’ll tell you what a big problem is: too many times, we don’t have the proper material in stock – while all too often, we are forced by policy to accept material that we don’t need!”
“Well, I don’t know what anybody else’s real problem is,” said Sarah, “but my real problem is getting data through the testing loop at F&D so that we can get results to customers.”
“Which,” said Murphy, “goes back to what I said was the real problem–”
“Cash flow!” Elaine asserted. “We currently have too much cash tied up in inventory, and we are spending more than we are making. That’s the problem.”
“Ultimately,” said Amy, “the real problem is that our earnings are not growing! We are not meeting our business objectives!”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” said Garth. “How can you increase earnings if you don’t increase sales!”
“I’ll tell you one way: by eliminating waste!” said Kurt. “If you save money, you make money –”
“No, no, no!” said Murphy.
“– and to save money by eliminating waste,” Kurt said, steamrolling on, “we need the proper black-belt to green-belt ratio!”
“To make more money, you have to increase your throughput!” Murphy thundered. “And to increase throughput you have to manage your constraints!”
“There you go with your ‘constraints’ thing again!” said Wayne. “If you eliminate variation, if you move to one-piece flow, if you –”
“Variation is reality! In some form and to some degree, it will always be with us!” said Murphy.
Amy glanced at her wristwatch. The time was 9:14 a.m., and already everything was out of control.
“Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!” she yelled.
Everyone quieted down and looked toward her.
“I’m glad everyone has an opinion,” she said, “but I want to lay out some rules. First, no arguing! Also, no finger-pointing, no blame games, no self-serving speeches, and above all, no excuses! If I hear any of that today, I will cut you off at the knees. What I want are facts. I want to hear clear, objective observations relating to why the business is in the current, undesirable state that it is.”
She waited a moment for someone to respond, and everyone was silent.
“All right,” Amy said, “I have an idea.”
She held up a pad of sticky notes and a pen.
“Let’s get some facts on the table – literally,” she continued. “I want each