40 • Relentless Improvement: True Stories of Lean Transformation
e company asked that I clean out the general manager’s oce and dis-
pose of any company documents, etc. So, one morning I headed upstairs
and went in an oce. It is always a little strange to go into an oce of
someone who is no longer there, yet it is interesting. So I sat at the desk
and started with the in-box; it was full. I kid you not; there were memo-
randa in his box that were more than three years old. ere was dust on
everything. I opened one of the desk drawers. ere were a couple of news-
papers and a Playboy magazine. ere were les and les of papers every-
where, and they were the insignicant kind that should have been thrown
away—again, three, four, ve years ...