More importantly, our software worked. I don’t just mean that it didn’t bump, or that it performed according to the written specifications, or that it was efficient in producing reports. It really worked

I write down the three measurements which Lou and I agreed are central to knowing if the company is making money: net profit, ROI and cash flow.

So this is the goal: To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow.

Well, I don’t. Not absolutely. But adopting “making money’’ as the goal of a manufacturing organization looks like a pretty good assumption. Because, for one thing, there isn’t one item on that list that’s worth...

While they go get the others, I figure out the details. The system I’ve set up is intended to “process’’ matches. It does this by moving a quantity of match sticks out of their box,...