VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [48]
“She must’ve kept you out of the kitchen,” said Murph, “because the spicing is just right.”
“As a matter of fact, she did,” said Jayro as he rained Tabasco over his bowl.
They were as usual for a Monday at midday in the drab, windowless toolroom that was all but forgotten by everyone else in the plant. At the center of their table was a pot with the gumbo and another pot with the rice. Behind those was dessert: a fresh peach pie with a sugary crust, which Murphy had brought.
“So if you balance the line, what happens?” asked Jayro.
“If you balance the line, the Black Belts claim, everything is just right – materials arrive just in time, and they leave each process exactly when the next process is ready for them. Waiting times, expenses, waste – all are reduced and minimized. Everything is flattened out.”
“Doesn’t sound bad to me, Murph.”
“Oh, it sounds just fine and dandy.”
“Then why are you against it?”
“Because the world is not flat.”
“Say what?”
“Go into nature, Jayro, and perfectly straight lines are difficult if not impossible to find. Look at the ocean and the horizon may seem like a straight line, but in reality that flat surface curves. There are waves. Variation. Distribution across a range of values.”
“But, Murphy, we are not at the beach. We are at a modern manufacturing plant. A controlled environment. One of our major jobs here is to produce consistent results. Straight lines are not impossible.”
“Even when a line looks straight, it wiggles and bends if you get close enough. There is variation, always. We do not eliminate variation here; we manage it. And then there is demand. Demand is never one constant value. There are waves in demand. And capacity must be sufficient to accommodate those waves – or losses of time and money will result. What Wayne and his Black Belts are not taking into account is the extreme difficulty of creating steady uniformity. Just to show you what they do not comprehend, they are treating Godzilla as if it was the same as any other process.”
“You’ve explained to them that once an autoclave is loaded there is no speeding it up? That temperature and pressure must remain steady for a specific time? That the time can vary from one hour to almost an entire day depending on what’s being made?”
“Yes, I’ve tried. I’ve spoken at length to Wayne Reese, but he is undaunted. He had complete faith in his Black Belts and his LSS methods. So the production line will be balanced. Our workers will be utilized to the maximum. And we are going to ‘save’ all kinds of money as a result.”
“So what are you going to do?” asked Jayro.
“Hope that they offer me a good severance package.”
“You’re serious?”
“No. And yes,” said Murphy. “But in the meantime, since I cain’t beat ’em, I intend to join ’em. I am signed up to go to black-belt school.”
“You? Isn’t that like weeks, maybe months of training? Who’s going to run the plant while you’re away?”
“Wayne Reese himself is going to take command. He will be assisted by his trusty Black Belts and I also volunteered you.”
Jayro shook his head in annoyance and reached for the peach pie.
“Gee, thanks, Murph. Trouble is on the way and you put me in the middle of it.”
“You’d be in the middle of it anyway.”
“Well, it’s going to look great right there at the top of my résumé. ‘Performed as assistant plant manager, during which time the plant saved so much money it went out of business.’ Maybe I’m the one who should be going to black-belt school.”
“Your day will come. They’re going to train me first, then you’ll go next. In the meantime, it’s been suggested that you do the green-belt training, which is quicker.”
“Murph, if you don’t believe in this LSS stuff, why are you signing up for it? And why are you pushing me into it?”
“Worst case scenario, it’ll look nice on both our résumés,” Murphy said with a grin. “But really, it’s not that I don’t believe in all of it. Based on everything I’ve heard and read, LSS does have its good points. The tools you learn are excellent and worth knowing. The core ideas are very interesting and