Sansfear
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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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 timing 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 upset 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 millions of $$) 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 dropped off to 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 rangâ€.
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Scarne
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Subject:
Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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This sounds like one of those made up stories. 
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GrilledCheez
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Subject:
Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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Scarne posted:
This sounds like one of those made up stories.
Obviously made up, but still kind of funny.
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Aerlinthian
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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GrilledCheez posted:
Obviously made up, but still kind of funny.
As I read the story I knew it was BS but read on anyway for the punch line. The beauty of a good engineer is that they will almost always seek out a quick and effective fix.
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Rhint
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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I work in manufacturing, I doubt the story is true but I see things almost exactly like it every day.
Just this week I saved a production line around 2 hours of downtime every week by sticking a stainless steel stopper in front of a faulty rail. Common sense is sometimes the only thing needed to address complicated problems.
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Onslaught.
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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Working in manufacturing, you see this daily. What's best is when you see a line worker arguing with an engineer trying to tell them the best way to fix it, and the engineer flat tells them that it's too simplistic of a fix.
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smellymotor
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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my brother is an engineer at a drive train manufacturer. he says one of the biggest causes of issues is line workers making their own "fixes"
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Sgian_Dubh
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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smellymotor posted:
my brother is an engineer at a drive train manufacturer. he says one of the biggest causes of issues is line workers making him look like an overpaid idiot.
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sweeny_comodore
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Subject:
Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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ive argued with engineers before.
they are the dumbest group of people ever to walk the earth.
im sure that story is made up but its entirely believable.
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Yossarian_42
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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Scarne
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Subject:
Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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If nothing else, that million dollar engineering solution did give the line worker the motivation to implement the fan solution. Without the line stopping every time an empty box went through, the line worker just didn't care enough to fix the problem.
This sounds more like a management failure more than anything else. The management went immediately to the engineers to solve the problem (and being outside contractors, they solved the problem they were given) and didn't ask the line workers if they had any thoughts on the matter.
Plus, why did management accept the engineering solution that would stop the production line? They went to all the trouble to detect the empty boxes, but then thought it was ok to require manual intervention and a line stoppage to fix it. Surely the machine could have had a part added on to remove the empty box automatically once it was detected.
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smellymotor
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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for every clever solution that a line worker comes up with there are at least 10 that cause injury or a stoppage
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SoBaKi
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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Rhint posted:
I work in manufacturing, I doubt the story is true but I see things almost exactly like it every day.
Just this week I saved a production line around 2 hours of downtime every week by sticking a stainless steel stopper in front of a faulty rail. Common sense is sometimes the only thing needed to address complicated problems.
This.
The engineers I've had to deal with generally over think a solution. While I appreciate the effort, there's a saying I've heard over the years that I fine to be totally true and on point....
"perfection is the enemy of good enough"
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eodoll
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Subject:
Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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The fan solution wouldnt work on boxes that are only missing one toothpaste tube. It only works on empty boxes.
So the engineers still came up with the best solution.
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Allstarslacker
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Solving problems - Engineers versus the common man
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That sounds like something that happened recently where I work.
They spent thousands installing a new sensor system that would switch diverters on and off automatically on the slide.
If the sensor in front of a diverter was clear it would send packages down that part of the slide until it was covered then it would open and let the flow go down to the next one.
This made life a lot easier for the morning sort which has 5-6 people working on a slide, but it made our job a lot harder on day sort because we only have 2 people there and only need one diverter open.
The system has no way to just open one diverter, so we took stickers off the packages and covered the eyes of the diverters we wanted to stay closed.
The corporate team that came to check out the new system was not amused.
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