VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [78]
“Right, I’m with you,” said Amy.
“So Final didn’t make sense. And anyway, most of our profit and even the majority of our volume comes from made-to-order, custom-designed products. In that case, you want the pacemaker upstream where the final specification is set. Therefore, to me, the M57 makes the most sense. That way we won’t overwhelm the system – and unbalance the line – with the efficiency gains we’ve achieved on the M57.”
“You mentioned the autoclave,” said Amy. “If I recall correctly, Murphy Maguire was telling me that Godzilla was the system constraint. Like, you know, a real bottleneck?”
This clearly touched a raw nerve inside Wayne.
“Look, Amy, we are designing Oakton for the future, not for the past. The autoclave – and I prefer to call it by its correct name, the AC-1240 – is so problematic in terms of Lean production that at some point it’s going to have to be replaced. Why should I let a batch-oriented piece of junk that’s going to be replaced dictate our takt time? We cannot allow our entire product flow to be set by yesterday’s technology and yesterday’s thinking!”
As she listened to this, Amy in fact did begin to relax. Clearly Wayne Reese knew what he was doing, she thought to herself. She decided she should continue to give him a free hand.
“All right,” she said. “I’m going to let you handle it.”
“Amy, I think we have accomplished an awful lot at Oakton in a relatively short period of time,” Wayne said in conclusion.
“Yes, you’ve worked hard, and I don’t in any way mean to question your sincerity or your integrity,” said Amy. “It’s just that there is a lot riding on this – for me professionally, and for everyone in the company. You have to come through, Wayne.”
“Understood. Look, I meant what I said earlier. I truly believe that by the fourth quarter, Oakton will be capable of delivering whatever Garth Quincy and the salespeople can bring in. We just have to let the Lean techniques run, keep Six Sigma in there reducing variability, and stay the course. Something this good has to pay off.”
That same Monday, Amy sat down briefly with Garth Quincy in his office.
“Wayne just told me a little while ago,” said Amy, “that he firmly believes that Oakton will have most of its issues resolved toward the end of the year. He thinks we’ll be capable of delivering what he called ‘a blow-out’ fourth quarter.”
“No kidding?” asked Garth.
“That’s what he said. So my question to you is, will the sales be there to make it happen?”
Garth interlaced the fingers of his salon-tanned hands and put them behind his golden head as he thought.
“Well, the fourth quarter, as you know, is historically our best time of the year, for various reasons,” he said. “So … yeah, it’s possible. If Reese and Oakton are sure they can deliver, I can throw together some incentives, and we can do a beat-the-bushes campaign to rev things up. What about Rockville? Is F&D on board? Because, you know, they have to review the designs of anything non-stock.”
“I have a call scheduled for tomorrow morning with Viktor Kyzanski,” said Amy. “I’ll be sure that he’s alerted.”
“All rightie then,” said Garth. “I’ll get my team on it. But Reese had better come through for us.”
As soon as Amy returned to her own office, Linda brought in a long white box tied with ribbon and a crisp red bow.
“They just arrived!” Linda chirped. “Looks like somebody likes you!”
Amy’s fingers pulled off the ribbon, and she opened the box to find a dozen long-stemmed roses inside. Roses, in fact, were not her favorite – she loved gladiolas, and was charmed by the simplicity of daisies – but he didn’t know that yet. These roses were fresh and beautiful, and most certainly expensive.
Linda cooed over them and then went to get a vase. Amy opened the little envelope with