Where’s Herbie? Who’s Herbie!

Our friend Herbie is like Waldo, except we find him in peeking out of ETI’s organizational chart rather than camouflaged in a complex collage. Although Herbie started out as a fictional Boy Scout in The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, Herbie plays hide and seek with us here at ETI almost full time.

In the Boy Scout example, Herbie is the slowest boy on the hike, the one who’s is slowing the whole group down. Put him last, and everyone needs to pause periodically to wait for him while he brings up the rear in his own sweet time. Left unattended, Herbie can get distracted and go even slower. Put Herbie in the middle and he splits the group; those behind are sore at him, those ahead think half the pack is slow, not just Herbie. Cajoling, discord, complaining, bickering.

Mr. Goldratt’s solution is to put Herbie in front, where everyone else is affected equally. And, although everyone started out carrying their own equal loads, taking a few things out of Herbie’s backpack and redistributing among the faster walkers clearly sets up an improved situation that can benefit everyone. Herbie, carrying less and happy to be the center of attention as the leader walks faster, as does everyone.

In the linear example, Herbie’s an impediment, causing not quite an obstruction. In ETI’s case, Herbie is the bottleneck, causing not quite a pileup -- maybe even just a little backup -- but slowing everything behind him in an assembly process, receiving/shipping, purchasing, winding, potting/curing, QC testing -- it doesn’t matter where. The end result is delay -- and cost.

We can’t always reorder where Herbie works in our processes. A big step is to find him, focus on his issues, and see if the load might be redistributed or improved somehow. Piling things in front of Herbie makes matters worse (more materials and inventory clogged in the system). Clearing the way afterwards leaves a vacuum of underutilization and wasted cost.

So we find Herbie, improve as much as we can, and balance the process with Herbie’s limitations in mind. 

But Herbie keeps moving around. Sometimes he jumps over to sales and marketing; sometimes finance/accounting; sometimes we literally need to track him down by the traces, clues, or trail he leaves.

And, most important, we need to prevent causing changes that cause several little Herbies pop up elsewhere -- and here’s where overview, averages, and statical data helps. But data in light of what? 

Mr. Goldratt makes that point quite clear -- the goal -- which is “making money.”  Is the slower but balanced system costing us more than spending capital to improve a problem? Is saving money here or there acceptable in light of the costs caused elsewhere? 

Finding Herbie and determining what to do about him makes many an ETI meeting heated and fun.