15
The hike starts again and the gaps in the line widen again.
alex thinks this is because the boys had no excess capacity to make up for negative deviations so they got further apart as those deviations accumulated.
“A mathematical principle says that in a linear dependency of two or more variables, the fluctuations of the variables down the line will fluctuate around the maximum deviation established by any preceding variables.”
how can the spreading out during the hike be solved? can tell everyone to hurry up or tell ron to slow down and stop.
in the plant, when departments get behind inventory builds up until managers allow overtime, get people to work faster and inventories decrease. so when can’t the plant catch up?
herbie comes to the back of the line so he won’t slow up other people. but alex thinks the troop as a whole has to wait for herbie so it won’t matter.
the troop gets to the five mile mark and it’s already 2.30pm. at that rate by the time they get to the camp site it’ll be dark.
alex decides to stop the line and put herbie up front. the rest of the boys start complaining about them making slow progress. alex sez they’ll have to figure out a way for herbie to go faster.
they check what herbie’s carrying and he has a lot of food and cooking equipment in his backpack. other boys take some of it and alex takes the rest and herbie starts moving faster so everyone else can move faster and the troop stays together. inventory is down. throughput is up.
they get to devil’s gulch in the late afternoon. they make some dinner, clean up, alex starts telling his son Davey about what he’s figured out and they go to sleep.
16
Davey and alex go home and find that julie has left, leaving their daughter sharon with alex’s mother.
julie wrote a note saying she’s tired of always being the lowest priority for alex.
alex picks up sharon who thinks julie is mad at her.
alex explains that julie is upset and has gone away for a few days.
he calls julie’s friends and parents, but they haven’t heard from her. julie’s parents say that alex must have done something wrong for julie to leave. alex calls the police but they won’t do anything unless there is evidence of a crime.