The Value of Enginering

[wbreitman]

A toothpaste factory had a problem. They sometimes shipped empty boxes without
the tube inside. This challenged their perceived quality with the buyers and distributors.
Understanding how important the relationship with them was, the CEO of the company
assembled his top people. They decided to hire an external engineering company to solve
their empty boxes problem. The project followed the usual process: budget and project
sponsor allocated, RFP, and third-parties selected. Six months (and $8 million) later
they had a fantastic solution - on time, on budget, and high quality. Everyone in the
project was pleased.

They solved the problem by using a high-tech precision scale that would sound a bell
and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it should. The line would
stop, someone would walk over, remove the defective box, and then press another
button to re-start the line. As a result of the new package monitoring process, no empty
boxes were being shipped out of the factory.

With no more customer complaints, the CEO felt the $8 million was well spent. He then
reviewed the line statistics report and discovered the number of empty boxes picked up
by the scale in the first week was consistent with projections, however, the next three
weeks were zero! The estimated rate should have been at least a dozen boxes a day. He
had the engineers check the equipment, they verified the report as accurate.

Puzzled, the CEO traveled down to the factory, viewed the part of the line where the
precision scale was installed, and observed just ahead of the new $8 million dollar
solution sat a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off the belt and into a bin. He
asked the line supervisor what that was about.

"Oh, that," the supervisor replied, "Bert, the kid from maintenance, put it there
because he was tired of walking over, removing the box and re-starting the line every
time the bell rang.”