John Burton was not a happy man. He was a supervisor for the Crofts Printing Company, having been recently promoted from lead printer. While he felt very comfortable with his knowledge and success in the printing business, this managerial position was starting to wear on him. He was determined not to let it get him down, however, as he felt he surely had the knowledge, experience, and respect of the workers. He had been asking Jason Crofts for months for a chance at management, and he certainly wasn$$t about to let it get the better of him.

His current problem had to do with scheduling. Since he had become supervisor the sales people always asked him about an order before they promised delivery to a customer. He thought that would be quite simple; after all, who knew more about the printing business than he did? Based on his knowledge of the processes and what was already in progress, he gave what he thought were reasonable, even conservative, estimates of promise dates. Unfortunately, his track record was not too good. There had been many late deliveries since his managerial appointment, and nobody in the organization was too happy about it$.$