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 and 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, "Gary, the retired Navy Chief, in
charge of maintenance, put it there because he was tired of walking over every
time the bell rang.
