VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [35]
A brief silence followed Viktor’s diatribe.
“Well, I am glad that’s understood,” said Amy. “And I’m very glad you made those points. Because we are not here to tell you how to do something when you clearly know better than we do, or how to go about it. That said, can you tell me, Viktor, that everything in F&D is perfect? Can you tell me that there is nothing here that could be improved?”
“Of course not!” said Viktor in a sort of merry thunder – changing instantly from argumentative to conciliatory. “No, I do not mean to suggest that everything here is perfect or that … some aspects of what we do could not be improved upon.”
Amy nodded. “Good. Then we have a basis for understanding each other. Because the intent of Lean Six Sigma is continuous improvement. And LSS has been endorsed and has the full support of everyone within our organization, from our chairman and CEO Peter Winn to our group president Nigel Furst to … yours truly.”
“And improvement … whatever its flavor … has my hearty endorsement as well,” said Viktor. “I can assure you that Formulation and Design will cooperate fully with your LSS program in every practical way.”
“Great,” said Amy. “Then let’s go make the presentation and get the ball rolling!”
After they had set up their laptops for the LSS presentation, Amy observed that Viktor was well out of earshot and nudged Wayne.
“What do you think of him?” she murmured, meaning Viktor.
“To say the least, I don’t think he gets it,” Wayne quietly replied.
“I suspect he might say the same about us.”
Wayne raised his eyebrows. “Well … possibly. But despite whatever he says, and I’m not discounting the points he made, the operation here does have similarities to a factory. They don’t make widgets, but they do produce a product. An intellectual product, consisting of information … knowledge of considerable value. To make that product, there are processes, just like in a manufacturing plant. Even the creative aspects he talked about – those are processes. There may be a lot of variation; there may be unpredictable events. Still, it stands to reason that if you optimize each and every one of those processes along the value stream, you’re going to get better results.”
Amy, as she thought about this, heard her name said aloud. Viktor was about to introduce her.
“We’ll discuss this later,” she whispered.
After it was over, Amy was not sure what impact the presentation had had. For one thing, there were a lot of vacant seats. In his email to F&D, Viktor had said to staff that attendance was suggested and requested, but was not mandatory. Then, right in the middle of Wayne’s talk, one of the star chemists had abruptly grunted, stood up, and walked out. Half a dozen others in the auditorium also departed at various points. Amy knew that, as a matter of culture, F&D tolerated and even respected a degree of free-spiritedness, so she said nothing. But the walkouts were hardly encouraging.
On the other hand, there was a core group who sat in the front rows and who paid close attention. Appearances suggested that by and large they were über-geeks. When the time for questions came, this group kept Wayne and his Black-Belt associate on their feet for nearly an hour after the formal presentation had finished. Viktor, in fact, had to cut them off. Most of their questions had to do with the statistical tools of Six Sigma and Lean – and a number of the questions were not just asking for clarification, they were outright challenges. Yet Wayne and the Black Belt held their own, and the group even seemed enthusiastic at the end. One of that group was Sarah Schwick.
After a long afternoon, Amy felt the call of nature and visited the women’s room, where she encountered Sarah. The two of them got to talking about one thing and then another, and Amy remembered