1. Alex told Jonah about the robot’s efficiencies early in the Goal, but Jonah had a different perspective. How did Johan define being productive and active? Using Jonah’s definition, what does it mean to be productive and activated employee working in a McDonald’s restaurant? What does it mean to be productive and activated consultant working for Mckinsey? Explain and give examples. Based on these definitions and examples what metrics would you use for McDonald’s and as consultant to measure productivity?

2. The hike helped Alex to understand dependencies and statistical fluctuations. Explain the concept using a laundry example, where you have to wash, dry, and fold various laundry types: whites, colored clothing and dark clothing. Using concepts from Chapter 11, Demand and Capacity Planning, how might you address these dependencies and statistical variation? Please use the appropriate technical terms and provide examples to explain.

3. What is Quality? Make a list of 5 different quality issues from the Goal. Using concepts from the text and class how would you address these quality issues? Please provide details.

4. Describe the color-coding tag system. What was it designed to accomplish? Was it successful from beginning to end? If not how did they improve it?

5. Why doesn’t saving time at a non-bottleneck make the system more productive? Explain a non-bottleneck and show a correlation between this and the critical method?

6. We studied chapter 11 managing capacity and demand. Johan offers Alex and his team a slightly different view on capacity and demand. Describe the two concepts? How are they similar? How to they differ?

7. Explain the three metrics Jonah recommends. Could these be used in a Starbucks coffee shop? Explain?

8. What is a constraint? Describe the steps and the methods that should be taken to address a bottleneck as outlined in the Goal.

9. Explain the methods to increase capacity of bottlenecks from the Goal and the textbook. Explain…do not just list.

10. Problematic work centers was a central part of the decision criteria for Alex when they considered the Monsieur Djangle deal. This and other issues were raised when they considered this deal. Outline the challenges Alex and team faced with the Monsieur Djangle deal.