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 the supermarket don’t get pissed off and buy someone
else’s 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 some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash
lights whenever a toothpaste box weighing 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.
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’ve 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 it, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the
belt and into a bin. “Oh, that — one of the guys put it there ’cause he
was tired of walking over every time the bell rang”, says one of the
workers.
"If you want a simple solution, ask a lazy man."