Reginald Jackson was employed as a cost accountant by the Piston Corporation, a medium-size auto parts company located in the outskirts of Detroit. Kelly Jones, the controller for Piston, decided that she needed an assistant. Jackson was selected to fill that position. As part of his training program, Jackson was sent to night school to study quantitative applications in cost accounting. Because the Piston Corporation's products were replacement parts, its sales were, fortunately, not as volatile as the new car market's. Piston had experienced a rather stable growth in sales in recent years and had been required to increase its capacity regularly. It appeared to be time for another expansion, but with an uncertain stock market prevailing and uncertainty concerning interest rates, Jones was worried about obtaining funds at a reasonable cost. On the other hand, Piston's production manager had been complaining, more than usual, about various personnel, material handling, and scheduling bottlenecks that arose from the high level of output demanded of his present facilities.