[ 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 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't 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 to the supermarket
don't get pissed off and buy another product instead.
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
engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra
effort.
The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor
allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million)
later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality
and everyone in the project had a great time.
They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would
sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box would weigh less
than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and
yank the defective box out of it, pressing
another button when done to re-start the line.
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. That's some
money well spent! – he says, before looking closely at the other
statistics in the report.
It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0
after three weeks of production use. It should have 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't picking up any defects, because all
boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.
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 before the scale, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes off of the belt and into a bin.
Oh, that, says one of the workers — one of the guys put it there 'cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang.
I think it is neat that I would be able to use this blog after the wise project so I figured it will be cool to share stuff that does not necessarily have to relate with my project, but is cool to share.
ReplyDelete