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Author Topic: Money well spent  (Read 2011 times)

Offline Intheswamp

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Money well spent
« on: February 25, 2012, 08:41:34 pm »
Money well spent
A Short Story for Engineers (listen up acebird!)
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 angry 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’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 the scale, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out 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.”
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American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

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Offline iddee

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Re: Money well spent
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2012, 10:01:44 pm »
I think I worked for that company....  :roll: :lau:
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline edward

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Re: Money well spent
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2012, 02:12:52 pm »
 X:X :lau: X:X

I also think I've worked for that company  :roll:

mvh edward  :-P