VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [90]
“And clients become upset, and we all go insane,” Sarah added. “So what is the answer? Hire more analysts? That’s what Viktor says – not that we can.”
“If you hire more analysts and put them into a chaotic system, what will that yield?” asked Murphy.
“Probably more chaos. While spending a lot more money.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“What would you do?” Sarah asked.
While forming his answer, Murphy sampled one of the side dishes, which had an intensely hot Madras curry, and was further delayed in his response until he could drain his beer and mop his forehead with his napkin.
“Whew!” he said. “Jayro Pepps would like that one!”
He ordered another beer and a pitcher of water from the waiter, and then recomposed himself.
“What would I do?” he continued. “The first thing would be to recognize that the analysts are the system constraint for F&D. Second, would be to decide what is the best application of their time – and remove anything extraneous to that decision. Third, would be to align, synchronize, and otherwise subordinate everything else going on at F&D to the analyst process – which should bring order to the chaos. And then once the chaos has been removed, the fourth step would be to improve the system by increasing the flow through the analysts – which is maybe when you would hire another analyst or two if the market supported it. Finally, you just keep doing those improvements until you’re doing the best that your markets will allow. What you do not do is allow, say, a shortage of lab techs to become the constraint.”
Sarah was considering all of this as she ate – and loving the heat the curries were making.
“What I would really like for you to do, Murph, is explain what you just told me to Viktor,” she said.
“Surely I can try,” Murphy said.
“Well, good. I’ll set up a meeting for you and I to talk to Viktor. I don’t know what his reaction will be, but he should at least hear how you view things.”
But the meeting with Viktor was a disaster. Sarah, who had planned to sit in, was called away to deal with some client crisis. Viktor was borderline rude, pretending to listen to Murphy even as he went about cleaning up his desk. In fairness, the meeting was poorly timed; Viktor had to leave for the airport within the hour to travel to California in order try to save a troubled account – and with so much on Viktor’s mind, the introduction of any new idea was practically impossible.
Murphy became acutely aware that Viktor was dissing him. He became tongue-tied – a rarity for him – as Viktor began throwing out challenges, as if to show he was paying attention. And when Murphy would attempt to explain his logic, Viktor would interrupt. Finally, and perhaps mercifully, Viktor took an important phone call.
“We’ll talk again some time,” said Viktor as Murphy exited.
“Not if I can help it,” Murphy muttered to himself as he retreated down the hall.
From that day on, Murphy Maguire resolved that he would come to work, do whatever he was paid to do, and that was all. Except for Sarah, no one was really interested in what he had to say, so what was the point? That very evening he drove to the mall and bought an iPod. It was a lonely time for him.
12
As the end of the year drew near, Wayne Reese and Kurt Konani began to trumpet the victories of Lean Six Sigma. By then Wayne had been on the job about fifteen months, and from the way he saw things, a lot had been accomplished – which was true.
The application of Six Sigma had determined the cause of the hairline cracks that had intermittently plagued production of certain advanced composites for the United States Navy. The cause was a laminating process that drifted out of control in a way that was impossible to detect by casual observation. The solution was relatively simple, and the cracking problem would never again occur so long as vigilance was paid to the control charts.
Then there was the reconfiguration of the M57 Line, the project of which Wayne and Kurt were the most proud. In a single weekend,