The Goal

A few weeks have passed. Alex has cut the batch sizes at the plant, and “efficiencies have gone up, not down” (238) as a result. Alex has a bad dream about Bill Peach chasing him through the plant. Julie, who is spending the night, wakes up as well, and he shares his fear that the plant’s system of cost measurement will make it look as though the cost of parts has gone up, when really it hasn’t; “in fact it hasn’t really done anything to our actual expenses […] we’ve reduced inventory and increased the amount of money we’re bringing in through sales” (240). Julie doesn’t understand how measurements can possibly be wrong, but Alex explains that the measurement makes incorrect assumptions: “that all the workers in the plant are always going to be fully occupied” (240), for instance.

At the office the next day, Lou thinks he’s found a way to make the cost of parts measurement look better that’s “valid” (241) according to accounting policy. Alex urges him to do it, but not to let anyone know. Alex gets on the phone with Johnny Jons, who tells him that a particularly hard-to-please customer, Bucky Burnside, wants a thousand models of a certain product, but the plant only has 50 in stock.