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After the summit, Silas walked back to his creaky roastery. He watched Giacomo fire up the massive drum for a single 10-pound test batch. He saw two packers stop work for fifteen minutes to switch from kraft paper bags to valve bags.
She showed two graphs.
She clicked to a new slide:
Gas consumption vs. Batch size optimization. A smooth, efficient curve. "We analyzed our activity. We found that 60% of our gas was used in the warm-up and cool-down phases, not the roasting itself. So the true cost driver was setup time . We now batch all small test roasts into one day. We use a smaller sample roaster for trials. We schedule large production runs back-to-back to eliminate cool-downs." cost driver analysis
"For a roastery," she explained, "the cost driver isn't just 'gas.' It's the activity that causes gas usage. At Aurora, we asked: What drives our utility bill? " After the summit, Silas walked back to his creaky roastery
A murmur went through the crowd. Silas stiffened. "Impossible. We buy from the same brokers. We pay the same city gas tax." She showed two graphs