On 12/11/2011 2:05 PM, Rick Feibusch wrote:
> *submitted by Bill B. of Atascadero, CA:*
>
> Cost Effective Engineering Solution
>
> 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 not 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 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 trash bin.
>
> "Oh, that,"? says one of the workers"one of the guys put it there
> 'cause he was tired of having to walk over every time the bell rang"!!
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