Close two plants?
Work · Board of 3Client: a regional food maker with five plants running at 61% capacity overall. I’m recommending they close the two oldest and move the volume to the other three. Their board meets in three weeks. Where does this break?
Chief of staff
This is what a board is for. I’d seat The Skeptic, The Operator and The Empath — the case, the logistics and the people.
The SkepticRisk Assessor
The OperatorCOO
The EmpathPeople Advocate
The board’s call
Close one plant now, not two; decide the second after the first transfer has run a full quarter.
Five plants at 61% is just over three plants’ worth of volume: three would run above 100% on a normal week, four run near 76%, with room for a line going down.

The Empath disagreed
“Two closures a year apart means two rounds of bad news in the same towns. Some boards would rather have one hard day.”
Example · Board of 3 · up to 135 credits






