A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can\u2019t be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down the supermarket don\u2019t get pissed off and buy someone else\u2019s product instead.<\/p>\n
Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their own engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.<\/p>\n
The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and \u20ac8 million) later they had a fantastic solution \u2014 on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighing less than it should was put on the scales. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done.<\/p>\n
A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints and they were gaining market share. \u201cThat\u2019s some money well spent!\u201d \u2013 he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.<\/p>\n
It turns out the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should\u2019ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren\u2019t picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.<\/p>\n
Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed. A few feet was away from the scales stood a \u20ac20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, that?\u201d said one of the workers, \u201cone of the guys put it there \u2019cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang\u201d.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011, DPNLIVE \u2013 All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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