ABSTRACT
Various recollections come back to me as I review the more than 50 years I have spent working for plant improvement. The first work I did as a professional was an improvement survey at the railway car manufacturing facilities of Hitachi Limited’s Kasado plant. In the course of the survey, I was charged with analyzing a process involving pins for connecting rods. Pins had to be transported from the forge to the vicinity of machines in the machining plant, yet a crane busy with other operations sometimes delayed this procedure for about half an hour. Should these periods of time be designated “delays” or “time waiting for crane”? If they were delays, were they process delays or temporary delays? I found myself unable to respond when these questions were put to me.
