The Legend of the Loaves

From:  Fast Track to Waste Free Manufacturing

By:  John W. Davis

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Locks, a young baker named Barren accidentally invented a unique recipe for yeast bread that became the rave of the kingdom.  His loaves became so popular that he had to labor each day, from dawn to dusk, preparing as many loaves as he possibly could.  Yet he found demand far out weighed his ability to supply.

One day the Governor of Locks came to Barren and said, “Sir Barren, I have an idea as to how you can produce many more loaves of your wonderful bread.  If you agree to do this, we can spread the demand to the neighboring kingdoms of Axon and Manuan and others.  We shall call it Locks’ Loaves and this will make our kingdom famous and you a very rich man.”

“But how shall this be done?” asked Barren

“Well you mix your concoction in a very large pot right?”

“That is right, Your Excellency.  The only one of it size in the kingdom.”

“Then the kingdom will build you many such pots and help you teach the citizens of Locks how to make your wonderful loaves, for which you will pay them a decent pittance.  We will build onto your bakery to make room for more pots and carry your loaves each day to the surrounding kingdoms by horse and hitchery.  Our kingdom will become famous, and our citizens will enjoy the benefits for the work we have provided them, and again, sir you will become a wealthy man, beyond your wildest dreams.  In turn, I will become the governor of the most prosperous kingdom of all kingdoms.”

Barren agreed with the governor and in the years to come he did indeed become a wealthy man and the kingdom of Locks prospered and became renown for its Locks” Loaves.  Almost everyone in the kingdom worked for Barren, and each year more expansions were made to his shop and many more pots were added.   Everyone in Locks was delighted and convinced their prosperity would continue forever, for no one else made Locks’ Loaves and no one else ever would.

In the kingdom of Axon, a bright young man named Gaven gave much study to Locks” success, and decided to see if Barren would allow him to visit his bakery.  This was agreed upon and in doing so Gaven saw much opportunity to reduce the considerable waste that was inherent to the process of preparing the loaves.  He proceeded to share his thoughts with Barren.  Barren said he really wasn’t interested.  He was already richer than he ever imagined he would be, and most everyone in Locks was working in his shop and prospering as never before.  Why would he want to change anything?  He asked.

“Sir Barren,” responded Gaven, “the reason you should consider change is to guard against someone else taking your business in the future.  Someone who could produce the loaves for less by eliminating the wastes that exist in your bakery.  This way, you help ensure that you stay where you are today, and that the people of Locks continue to enjoy the work and prosperity they have today.”

“All right, I will listen to what you have to say.  So what sort of wastes are you referring to?”  quizzed Barren.

“Well, as an example, I observed how long it takes to change from one pot of mix to the next.  It took hours, and almost half a pot of mix was thrown away.  If we could devise a means to use the mix faster so it did not harden to a point it could not be used and then find a way to cut the time to change the mix in the pot, your could save a considerable amount of…”

Barren interrupted, “Young man, our loaves are a tradition and they are only made in Locks.  The people of the kingdoms buy our loaves because of what they are, not what they cost.  I’m sorry, but there is no way anyone is going to take my business away.  It just isn’t possible.”

“Sir barren, what if someone found a way to make their loaves just as flavorful as yours, and could produce them in larger quantities and deliver them faster?  Do you not think they would have the chance of getting some, if not most, of your business?”

“We plan to expand again this year and I need the money I have available for that.  How can I justify spending money for such things as you suggest when it is needed in order to expand my shop and deliver our loaves to other kingdoms?”  Barren replied.

“Well, again, Sir perhaps if you spent your money on what I’m suggesting there would be no need to expand further.  Perhaps you could get many more loaves out of the pots you now have.”

“Perhaps, perhaps.  You say perhaps!  I cannot operate on the basis of perhaps.  I know what has worked in the past, and I’ll have no part of some fool-hardy scheme.”

Seeing that it was useless to continue, young Gaven went his way and Sir Barren continued with his way, and Locks” Loaves indeed continued to grow and prosper even further.

As the months went by, however, Gaven went to work on his “scheme.”  With the help of a local baker who was able to prepare a recipe that tasted just as good as Locks’ Loaves, Gaven was able to prepare a plan and get counsel with the governor of Axon.

Suffice to say, it did not take much convincing to get the governor of Axon to give his full kingdom’s support to helping Gaven start Axon’s Loaves and they went about this on a rather grand scale.  Within months they were in business, directly competing with Locks, at a price that was less expensive and with a flavor that was comparable in taste.

When Barren learned of this, he summoned his head bakers and with samples of Axon’s loaves at hand, they proceeded to study the competition and form conclusions.

“Without doubt, they are selling some of their loaves in the kingdoms, but only to people who have saving a penny in mind,” Baker One remarked.

“Most certainly, citizens of the kingdoms will try it out of curiosity, but no upstanding citizen would ever decide to switch forever to Axon over a proven product like Locks,” Baker Two said.

“It’s only a matter of time before they’re out of business,” Baker Three chided sarcastically.

“They’re just buying their way in, and can’t keep the cheaper prices going forever,” Sir Barren remarked.

In the end, they convinced themselves they really had nothing to worry about and proceeded with business as usual.  In the meantime, Gaven was busy with ideas as to how to reduce wastes.  He developed a process that allowed him to use batches faster by flowing the loaves, one after another to groups of workers who did pieces of work to the loaves, rather than each worker making an entire loaf as was the method in Locks.  But he went even further.  He made sure no worker started his portion of another loaf if he had one that had not been picked up by the next worker.  He did this because he did not want workers building and stacking loaves that weren’t ready to be used by the next worker in the line.  This way he could ensure there would not be wasted loaves at the end of the day.  He had learned, with the product being bread, that anything left to be finished tomorrow usually ended up in the scrap pile – something he could ill afford.

Later, one of the workers suggested that with this type of approach they did not need such large containers.  They could produce and use the mix in much smaller batches, thus eliminating dealing with the hardening of the mix in the bottom of the pot.

One improvement built on another.  One idea followed another and within a relatively short period of time Axon dropped the prices of its loaves even further and became the loaf of choice throughout the kingdoms.

As business began to decline substantially, Barren once again summoned his head bakers.  What were they to do?  Certainly, it was evident they could no longer keep everyone on, so they decided they must first reduce the work force.  This was done, much to the chagrin of both the governor and the workers.

They further decided they had to cut prices to match Axon, and find ways to reduce cost and offset the impact of the price reductions on profits.  They agreed that for some time they were going to have to operate at a loss in order to ensure there would be no further decline in share of the kingdom.

They decided they would hire and Axon baker to determine what Axon was doing to reduce prices.  They did this, but when the baker told them what they had to do in order to compete with Axon, many of the head bakers scoffed at the suggestions.  Get rid of their larger pots?  How absurd.  Have the workers build only a portion of the loaf?  Indeed, in some cases, tell them to slow down?  They did try a smaller mixing pot, but being unwilling to change the method in which workers made the loaves, they found the smaller pots simply did not function for them.  There never seemed to be enough mix available when it was needed.  They soon collectively convinced Barren that the newly hired baker was planted by Axon to lead them astray, and it was not long before he was released.

Further business declines followed for Locks, which were followed by further reductions in the work force.  Employees at Locks became extremely unhappy, and they expended much time and energy in gossip and discussions about leadership or the lack thereof.  Many had left and sold their farms to join Locks and now had nothing to return to.  While the coffers of Locks had substantial funds from its many years of success, the governor was seeing them starting to dwindle rapidly.  He took up the chant that the problem was with Sir Barren.   He just wasn’t foresighted enough.  After all, it was he, the governor, who had to show Barren how to get the business started.  Within a few short months, Barren was released and replaced.

A group of Axon workers had left the bakery to form their own group of “Show – Hows”  and were spending time on the road teaching the principles of Axon to other businesses-and not necessarily to those in the bread business.  Locks decided to hire the “Show – Hows.”  Business by now continued to slip rapidly and profits were slipping even faster.   The work force was only half of what it had been at one time, and in many sections of the bakery, mixing pots sat idle, starting to rust away.

The Show – Hows tried desperately, but resistance was great.  It was greatest among the head bakers, who simply could not accept the new way.  But they did show compliance by making small changes in some areas of the shop so the work force could practice the new methods and become comfortable with them.  Yet it was clear to the Show – Hows there was no intention on the part of the head bakers to make a complete and absolute change.   When the head bakers scoffed at the suggestion of the smaller pots and said, “We have tried that and it does not work for us,” the Show – Hows, once alone, laughed among themselves and called the head bakers “Brick Heads.”  But Locks was paying them a decent wage for their service, so if that was the way Locks wanted to be then so be it.

Time marched on.  Business at Locks continued to decline.  Business at Axon continued to grow, and a day eventually came when all the workers at Axon were call together and informed that the Locks’ Loaves, the first and the original, had officially closed its door.

Moral of the Story:      Clinging diligently to practices of the past can often blind one to the requirements of the future!