[K3CAL] Engineers

[Jim Tetlow]

Engineers:
 
 
Those of you who have even a slight mechanic's mind will love this.
However, you don't have to be an engineer to appreciate this story...
A toothpaste factory had a problem.  They sometimes shipped empty boxes
without the tube of toothpaste inside.  This challenged their perceived
quality with the buyers and distributors.
Understanding how important the relationship with them was, the CEO of the
company assembled all of his top people.  They decided to hire an external
engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem.  The project
followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP and
third-parties selected.
Six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution - on time,
on budget and high quality.  Everyone in the project was pleased.
They solved the problem by using a high-tech precision scale that would
sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it
should.  The line would stop; someone would walk over, remove the defective
box and then press another button to re-start the line.  As a result of the
new package monitoring process, no empty boxes were being shipped out of the
factory.
With no more customer complaints, the CEO felt the $8 million was well
spent.  At the end of the first month, he reviewed the line statistics
report and discovered the number of empty boxes picked up by the scale in
the first week was consistent with projections.  However, the next three
weeks were zero!  The estimated rate should have been at least a dozen boxes
a day.  He had the engineers check the equipment, and they verified the
report as accurate.
Puzzled, the CEO traveled down to the factory, viewed the part of the line
where the precision scale was installed, and observed that just ahead of the
new $8 million dollar solution sat a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes
off the belt and into a bin.  He asked the line supervisor what that was
about.
"Oh, that," the supervisor replied, "Bert, the kid from maintenance, put it
there because he was tired of walking over, removing the box and re-starting
the line every time the bloody bell rang.
 
 
Best Regards,
Jim Tetlow
 <mailto:jimtetlow at chesapeake.net> k3uga at comcast.net
 
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