VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [108]
Amy cut off the discussion, saying, “Okay, I think I’m beginning to see some of the connections here.”
She went to the whiteboard and began trying to diagram the chain of what was going on.
“This is a fact,” Amy said, pointing to the bottom note. “By policy, and for serious reasons, the analysts at F&D must review and approve all product designs manufactured by Hi-T. We might argue over whether this is necessary, but for now it’s a fact this is what is happening. Right?”
“Right,” said several of the others in unison.
“At the same time, the analysts have their own research and other duties. That also is a fact. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“Thanks to Sarah Schwick, it’s been made clear that the analysts are incentivized in a number of ways – ranging from their bonuses to professional interest – to give priority to F&D clients and the hourly billings to those clients that generate income. True?”
“True.”
“So if F&D clients get top priority, then design approvals for Hi-T get lower priority. Also true?”
“Yes.”
“And if the analysts cannot finish all their work in a given time period, something is going to be delayed. Right? And the work that is put off until tomorrow is almost always going to be the lower priority design approvals. Right again?”
“Yes, I’m sorry to say it, but that’s the way it happens,” said Sarah.
“If the analysts have to postpone approvals, then when they finally get around to dealing with them, what happens? The approvals are going to be late, and they’re going to be released in a big batch.”
“Wait a minute,” said Wayne. “Why is that? Why the big batch?”
“I’m presuming that’s what happens, because that’s human nature,” said Amy. “It’s like email. Most days, because I’m busy, I usually can’t deal with each email as it comes in. I wait until I have fifteen or twenty minutes, and then I deal with all of it.”
“Yes, and that’s what happens in Rockville,” Sarah agreed. “When an analyst gets a breather, he whips through all the accumulated designs that have come in, and he signs off and sends them to Oakton. Except that all of these require more than just a token glance. Some can be looked over and approved in minutes, but others may require hours or days of analysis, queries, testing, and so on. And those are going to be held up even longer.”
“Therefore, when design approvals finally reach Oakton, they come sporadically and late,” said Amy. “And if they come in late –”
“Oakton is always playing catch-up,” said Murphy.
With a nod to Murphy, Amy wrote out another sticky note and put it above the others.
As she did this, Wayne’s shaven head turned pinkish and then red. Finally, he spoke up.
“All right, all right,” he said, “I have the distinct feeling that you are going to try to pin all the problems on me – and on LSS.”
“No, Wayne, I have no intention of doing that, or of letting anyone else do that,” Amy said calmly. “As I said at the beginning, there will be no blame games, no finger-pointing, not even any mea culpas, and absolutely no self-serving speeches.”
Wayne sat back, but folded his arms across his chest.
“But more than that,” Amy continued, “you brought to this company something valuable, something elegant, something that made sense on a lot of levels. I bought in. Many of us bought in. And I’ve all but staked my career on it. Yet the things we have tried have not delivered – at least not to the degree we expected. So we have to figure out what is really going on and go from there.”
She turned back to the white board.
“Now, the statement has been made that Oakton is always playing catch-up. If that is true, the question is, why? What has been going on at Oakton?”
“How far back do you want to go?” asked Murphy.
“I guess as far as necessary,” said Amy.
“Well, even before the lawsuit and the F&D approval requirement, it was decided by people far more intelligent than yours truly that Hi-T would avoid high-volume, low-margin production.