The Purgatory of Waste: A Lean/Six Sigma Allegory

By Linda Brennan, PhD

Operations executive Victoria Lindsay brings new meaning to “the boss from hell.” God decides to enlist her help, not for hell, but for purgatory. It seems that purgatory, the place where sinners go to repent, is overcrowded. Victoria’s challenge is to improve throughput the rate at which souls complete their penance and can go to Heaven. Applying principles from operations management, lean production and Six Sigma quality practices, Victoria tackles each of the seven terraces with her set of tools. With help from Charlie the Cherub and the terrace angels, she tries different approaches to meet the challenges. Perhaps the most difficult challenge is her own repentance. Lord, have mercy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: May 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781641822138

Linda Brennan, PhD

Linda’s career has spanned management and engineering positions in four Fortune 100 companies, consulting in dozens of industries and teaching leadership, management, and strategy to audiences from undergraduates to executives. A seasoned professional, she is a widely published author. She earned her PhD from Northwestern University, an MBA from The University of Chicago, and her bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A Six Sigma Black Belt, she earned her professional engineering license in Georgia and has been a certified project management professional. An avid reader, Linda loves to exercise and enjoys her pets. She and her husband Bob live in the Chicago area.

Book preview

Concepts

About the Author

Linda’s career has spanned management and engineering positions in four Fortune 100 companies, consulting in dozens of industries and teaching leadership, management, and strategy to audiences from undergraduates to executives.

A seasoned professional, she is a widely published author. She earned her PhD from Northwestern University, an MBA from The University of Chicago, and her bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A Six Sigma Black Belt, she earned her professional engineering license in Georgia and has been a certified project management professional.

An avid reader, Linda loves to exercise and enjoys her pets. She and her husband Bob live in the Chicago area.

Copyright Information ©

Linda Brennan, PhD (2021)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Brennan, PhD, Linda

The Purgatory of Waste

ISBN 9781641829403 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781641822121 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781641822138 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021907752

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my students at Mercer University, who over the years have inspired and encouraged me to develop this project.

Love and thanks also go to Bob and Jonathan, my best critics and most supportive readers!

Synopsis

The setting is Purgatory. Our protagonist is a hard-charging operations executive who takes no prisoners. God has challenged her to fix the bottlenecks that the baby boomers are creating in Purgatory.

This is a story of transformation, of an organization as well as an individual. In this humorous work of fiction, key concepts of lean management and Six Sigma practices are explained and applied. The story is intended to illustrate how the underlying theory and wide range of techniques in this field of practice can be used to change an organization, regardless of the context.

The main character undergoes transformation as well. Not only does she become a better person but also learns to be a better leader and change agent.

While references are made to the Bible, as appropriate to the story’s setting, the principles are agnostic and represent best practices for effective leaders.

It is hoped that the reader will also experience a sense of transformation, with a clearer insight into what makes Lean Six Sigma so vital to an organization. As a point of reference, the key concepts are summarized after the story concludes.

Chapter 1

Meeting

Goddamn it! Veronica Lindsay pounded the conference table. I wanted this situation corrected, yesterday. What is the matter with you people?

The others seated around the table shifted uneasily. There was no talking to Ms. Lindsay, vice president of operations, once she started one of her rants.

"I do not know how I could be any clearer. We must get the unit cost down by at least 5% this quarter. That was my commitment to Wellspring’s president–and we will get there, one way or another. Am I making myself clear?"

Everyone nodded, understanding the veiled threat. It was not beyond Lindsay to fire someone as an example to the others.

She turned her laser focus to the middle-aged man on her left. Michael, why is there so much inventory in your plant? I thought you were moving to eliminate waste in that operation and pull from the suppliers?

Michael Archer, the plant superintendent for the western territories, took a deep breath. I expect those levels to decrease, soon. We received a bad forecast from Sales…

"Do not try to shift blame, Michael. We are supposed to be operating on a pull system, where you produce to real orders, not imaginary forecasts. What’s really at issue?" pressed the VP.

Well, if we only make to order, then our utilization becomes extremely variable. You know how the orders seem to fly in during the last week of the quarter, when the salespeople are trying to make their quarterly numbers? So, the beginning of each quarter is slow, and our utilization numbers go down. I don’t want to lay off workers, especially since they are needed during the inevitable crunch periods. This ‘just-in-time’ pull approach works better with a more stable demand, explained Archer.

Veronica blinked, thinking about the implications of Michael’s explanation. Hmm, she thought, I might be able to use this against Jose Gittman and his sales force, and make Jose look bad as the vice president of sales in front of the president. Aloud, she said to the superintendent, You are just going to have to do better than this. If you must lay off people, then do it. Look at running overtime during the peak periods.

Turning to the head of purchasing, Mark Downey, Veronica asked, What is going on with the cost of kaolin?

Downey explained that the mining operations in Georgia had been suspended for several days, due to storm damage from the recent bout of hurricanes. The decrease in supply put upward pressure on the commodity’s pricing.

Don’t you hedge against those sorts of situations? What, are you an amateur? the scorn in Veronica’s voice was more biting than her words. You should have alternate suppliers identified, for all of our key inputs. I want that list by the end of day, tomorrow.

Downey nodded.

And Mark, she added, the analysis you did about reducing the cost of packaging materials was crap. I want three different options, and I want the costs to include the training, retooling, and handling involved, as well as an assessment of the impact on quality yields. Telling me that a pallet of cardboard will cost $125 less means nothing. Veronica smiled, but her smile was menacing. If you cannot do a thorough job, just tell me—and I’ll get someone else to do it.

Mark broke eye contact