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alex tells his children what’s happening at the plant, then he goes to the airport to pick up jonah.
earlier alex talked to jonah and told him he had two bottlenecks and couldn’t offload from them to other resources so jonah came to bearington.
jonah sez most plants don’t have bottlenecks, but they should.
they go to the plant and talk to bob, lou, stacey and ralph.
jonah asks if they want to increase the throughput and improve cashflow.
jonah sez they need to increase the capacity of only the bottlenecks so it is closer to demand. he asks to see the plant.
they go to the ncx-10 and it’s not currently operating. setup workers went on a union mandated break.
jonah sez the ncx-10 should always be running and they should talk to the union and explain why.
jonah asks if they still have the machines replaced by the ncx-10, but they got rid of a class of the machines necessary to supplement the ncx-10 to make room for a new pen to hold inventory.
jonah asks if there are any alternatives to heat treatment for any of the parts that go into the furnaces. but the engineering department won’t approve changes.
jonah asks if they can get other companies to do some of the heat treatment. they say this would cost money.
he points to the inventory in from of the furnaces and asks how much money it represents. some of the parts don’t contribute to throughput - they are doing this to increase efficiencies. but about 1000 are required for parts that sell for ~$1000 so the pile represents $1 million.
next jonah wants to see qc. he points to parts that have been rejected by qc and asks if they are bottleneck parts. they decide to check parts before they get to the bottleneck so they don’t lose bottleneck time on defective parts.
jonah asks for the cost the ncx-10 and the furnaces and they say $32.50 and $21 per hour respectively. jonah sez that’s wrong cuz it doesn’t take into account the fact that they’re bottlenecks but treats them in isolation. An hour lost at a bottleneck costs the equivalent of what the plant produces in an hour, which is $2375.
jonah recommends that any part that doesn’t contribute to throughput immediately should be processed elsewhere. and if other machines can do the same process those other machines should be used instead.
the next morning alex’s children say they heard music that julie’s father likes down the phone when she called to talk to them so alex thinks she’s staying with them.