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98TJ
RCRC Club Member RCRC Club Treasurer Joined: 10 May 2005 Location: Maysville, Madison County Status: Offline Points: 8400 |
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Posted: 16 July 2014 at 2:42am |
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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 every time the bell rang."
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1998 TJ 4.0 5spd Atlas 36" Swampers RE4.5 ARB's 44/44
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gumataotaom
RCRC Club Member Joined: 15 February 2014 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 205 |
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I was hoping for a story with bungees and duct tape but still a good story.
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Doc Savage
RCRC Club Visitor Joined: 16 February 2004 Location: Huntsville, Madison County Status: Offline Points: 1180 |
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So True. I may be an Engineer, but my dad was an electrical contractor. I got to see some stupid engineering growing up. Learned that lesson ;)
As I sit in alot of meetings at work, I would almost rather be in with program managers than in with some of the engineers. One way to stretch a meeting out is to get multiple engineers discussing the best way to do anything. Robert |
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Past President, Rocket City Rock Crawlers
Past President, Madison County CERT Association |
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Mike_LaMar
RCRC Club Visitor Joined: 25 November 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 709 |
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Same thing when you get a few Sgts Maj together to figure out how to do a ceremony.LOL Mike |
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2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, 4" Superlift Suspension, 37" Toyo MTs
"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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CJ7OX
RCRC Club Member Joined: 17 February 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1869 |
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That is right on the money! What's worse is sitting through an IPR with 6 Sergeants Major trying to come up with the best way to run a National Soldier/NCO of the Year competition. Talk about 8 hours to discuss something that only take 10 minutes....!
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~Sean
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem. -Reagan MOLON LABE 85ish CJ-7/06 CTD |
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