Weekly Versus Monthly Pubs --Dickeson

But Deming, Goldratt and Ohno didn't come on stage in the United States until the mid-'80s. Then James Gleick and his Chaos Theory explained variation in '87. A bit later, Dr. Donald Wheeler clarified the arcane statistics for managing variation.

Henry Ford had taught it with a continuously moving assembly line for his Model T in the '20s. "Hey, you can't possibly sell Tin Lizzies at those prices," they said. Sam Walton reinforced it in the '90s with superb inventory management software for the Wal*Mart stores. "Hey, Wal*Mart can't survive at those prices," we keep saying. We hear faint echoes of Sergeant Bilko in the old TV series shouting, "Move it. Move it. Move it. Move those direct materials," is the repeated message. Laidlaw intimated it in his comment about weekly pubs and costs.