VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [46]
Michelle stared at her mother with an expression of bewilderment on her face.
“What’s the matter?” Amy asked her.
“You say the washer, the dryer, and the iron – they’re all going at the same time?”
“Yes. What’s wrong with that? Wayne would set things up so that the laundry doesn’t sit in big piles. There would be a steady flow set to the pace of takt time. You know, like just as soon as Ben empties the ironing basket, the dryer stops and there are more clothes to be ironed.”
“Mom, are you serious?” asked Ben. “Oh, man, that sounds like a bad dream.”
“Don’t worry,” his mom said, “Wayne would set the pace so you’re not worn to a frazzle. But everything would be synchronized. As soon as the washer was empty, there would be more clothes sorted and ready to go in. Do you see what I mean? Everything moves like ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk … in time with everything else. And it’s all pulled by demand. Like, upstairs, there would be a min-max level on each type of clothing. You get down to three pairs of underwear, the system sends a signal to the basement to wash more underwear.”
“With all due respect, Mom, what planet are you on?” asked Michelle.
“What is so hard to understand about this?!” Amy said. “How have I managed to raise two kids who have no vision? No imagination?”
“But, Mom, what about the dryer?” asked Michelle.
“What about it?”
“The dryer always takes longer than the washer. Everybody knows that! Like twice as long if it’s got a full load,” said Michelle. “The laundry would go ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-STOP! Because the washer is finished, but the dryer still has half an hour to run.”
Amy’s brow compressed as she considered this.
“She’s right,” said Zelda. “What would Wayne do about the dryer?”
“All right, I admit the dryer would be a headache,” said Amy. “But Wayne would come up with some kind of solution. Like maybe he would install a second dryer so that each one has half a load and finishes quicker, in synch with the washer.”
“Two dryers?” asked Michelle. “Isn’t that like twice as expensive? Twice the electricity? Isn’t that muda? And if you only do half a load in each dryer, isn’t that more muda?”
“Well, yes … but wet clothes waiting in the washer, that’s muda. And your poor brother standing idle waiting for more clothes to iron, that would be muda, too. I guess Wayne would have to figure out which way is the lesser muda and go with that …”
Then a thought occurred to Amy.
“Oh, hold on! I’m sorry. Just forget the laundry example. Because the way I described it? That’s what’s called batch and queue. Wayne doesn’t like batch and queue. That’s the old industrial mind-set.”
“Amy, dear, how else can you do laundry?” asked Zelda.
“Wayne would invest in new technology. Instead of doing laundry by the washerload – which is a batch – and having baskets stacked up waiting to be washed and dried, Wayne would strive for one-piece flow.”
“You mean we have to do the laundry one shirt at a time?” asked Ben. “We’d never finish! I’m serious, Mom, I’m going to have nightmares!”
“Now, come on!” said his mother. “Try to envision a better way! Maybe Wayne installs some kind of high-tech laundry chute connecting the upstairs to the basement. Maybe it’s automated, so that there’s no hand-sorting, and the laundry goes right into the washer and a sensor identifies the fabric and gives each piece its own perfect treatment with just the right temperature and the right amount of detergent. Maybe there is no washer as we would think of it; maybe the clothes are cleaned by ultrasonic waves rather than soap and water. Maybe there is no dryer, because the clothes aren’t wet!”
“Sounds great, but won’t that take years and cost billions of dollars?” asked Ben.
“Yeah, is this going to be ready in my lifetime?” asked Michelle.
“All right, all right,” said their mother, frustrated by now. “Let’s just forget about it.”
“Mom, you got us into the laundry business.