His cousin, Andrew, runs manufacturing for a strong company that assembles complex machines. In spite of working in such different environments, they have an identical problem. Just when critical parts are needed the most, they seem to be missing. As an example, recently, when Chris had a patient in surgery, he needed a certain tool and it was not on the surgery cart. A nurse literally had to run out of the operating room to find it. In a similar scenario, Andrew’s assembly operators were pushing to get a machine out the door to an important customer, and several of the key parts and components were not available. No one seemed to know where they were and why they hadn’t been delivered to the assembly area. A late shipment could harm the future relationship with the customer.