5. Why was the inventory between Sarah and Joseph called a decoupler in this round? Hint: Think of Joe and Sarah as working within one cell and where are decouplers typically placed and why. Notice in (L4.6) Cell Design - Example of a Volume Flexible Manufacturing Cell Illustrating the Worker Separated from the Machine, that there is one intermediate part at each single-cycle automatic machine. This intermediate part decouples the worker from the machines so that they can run multiple machines in a work loop. The cycle time of the automatic machines is also decoupled.