Over engineering

[Ridgewalker]

I work in many different manufacturing environments and this story really rings true...anyone seen it before? Got one like it? If so pass it on. I have a couple of other good ones I can share that I saw first hand so if you want to hear them pony up!

A toothpaste factory had a problem, they sometimes shipped boxes without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up. 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 at the supermarket don't get upset & buy another product. Understanding how important that was the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together to start a new project. They decided 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. 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've been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. After some investigation the engineers came 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 rang".

 

[Sutol]

:laughing:That's about right :laughing::laughing:

 

[Scooby074]

Ohh.. Thats a good one.

Sad thing is, as i was reading the description of the problem, i was thinking about installing a scale inline.. Now where's my $8 million :laughing:




///Occam's something or other

 

[2458n]

I was thinking along the line of a puff of air. A friend had a project that needed to remove badly shaped or broken crackers before packaging. If they were not square they too were puffed off the line. The best source for alot of process improvements is the person who has done that job for the last ten years. Many are just happy that someone wants their input.

 

[TheKid]

I've got one that's not about over engineering, but using a bit of common sense to solve a problem. Al, my neighbor at the lake, worked as a machinist for a company that made various pills. They used a large rotary presses to form the powder into the pill shape. One of the companies new products was going to be a two color pill. They started a production run and saw that some of the green from the top layer was ending up on the white bottom layer and the white was also showing up on the green.

The plant management and engineers tried to figure out how to fix the problem. They even flew in engineers from the company that built the press and even then no one could figure out what was causing the colors to mix. While all of the engineers were standing around scratching their heads Al happened to walk by and asked them what was going on. They told him what was happening and he stood there thinking about it for a while before telling them he needed someone to run down the street to the drug store to buy him four tooth brushes. Of course everyone looked at him like he was crazy, but he eventually convinced them to sent someone down to the store.

He spent a little while rigging up the brushes and then told them to fire up the press. The pills were perfect. What all of the college educated engineers had spent days trying to figure out, Al, who never went to high school, and couldn't even read, fixed in about an hour.

He had positioned the brushes so they would clean any residual powder off of the dies just prior to the powder for the next pill going in.

 

[Travelover]

I worked as an engineer in the auto industry for 27 years. When we had a production problem I always used to get the line workers away from their boss and asked them point blank, "what is wrong and what should I do?"

First I knew their boss would deny any problem existed and second, I knew the workers knew every detail of the operation and knew how to fix it and wanted to fix it for their own job security.

We learned a lot of math in engineering school, but they don't teach common sense. :laughing:

 

[Reg]

There is no "Over engineering".
Think about it for more than 1/2 second and you'll get it.

There in poor engineering, good enough engineering, adequate engineering and good engineering.
Elegant solutions are often "best" in many dimensions, e.g. cost, simplicity, time to implement, etc.

SOMETIMES some attributes are so way out of balance with the rest of the system that SOME people yell "Over engineered", but in fact it is poorly engineered.

Yeah, sorry to be pedantic about it, but when Ya ARE one it cuts Ya (-:

WRT the base post; SOMETIMES a complex and expensive solution "stimulates" resourcefulness - so what ?
That doesn't mean that the workers on the line are any smarter than the consultants that walked out of there with $8x10^6, quite the contrary.

 

[PapaPerk]

I've seen that one before. It's a great story and very true!!! :laughing:

 

[Brad_Blazer]

There is something to the concept and few engineers ignore the opinions of the operators. That's why many plants have a "Kaizen" system where workers submit continuous improvement suggestions. I was touring the BMW plant in SC recently and they mentioned that one of the workers earned a bonus from a particularly effective suggestion. It was enough for him to buy a house.

 

[rtimgray]

I usually look at it this way - most of the time, the engineer will get a project at least 90% or more correct; however, after it's installed or completed, all the Monday morning quarterbacks and armchair engineers, who couldn't imagine the scope of the project prior to it's installation, now have the opportunity to nitpick anything that the engineer missed.

No, the operator could not research available options, contacted multiple vendors, prepared documents for Capital spending approval, executed purchase orders, conduct design reviews, factory acceptance testing, shipping, installation, contractor preparedness, start-up, training, spare parts, etc...but man, can they complain if you install the phone on the wrong side of the conveyor.

House designers can suffer from the same problem - people can look at a set of plans and complain about what they don't like, but they have a pretty tough time creating a "perfect" set of plans from scratch.

For the record, the gizmo that the folks needed in the OP's apocryphal story is called a checkweigher (often combined with a metal detector in food and drug appliccations) and it usually incorporates a reject mechanism (air blow off or mechanical reject).

But it's still so much fun to blame everything on engineers because its obvious that the janitor always has a better idea.

 

[DANOCHEESE]

WHats the joke about NASA They spent two million designing a pen that would write upside down in space. The russians used a pencil It is all about the problem in engineering or the opportunity

 

[MikeD74T]

Anybody think some engineers are just a little bit touchy???? :laughing: MikeD74T

 

[mad_planter]

The two responses above kinda illustrate my point. I will never understand the ego and defensiveness that comes out when "the arm chair quarterbacks" make comments.

Oh, and FYI I am a engineer.

 

[dynasim]

Actually, I am one of the most popular engineers at the facility that I am currently at(among the operators). I recently moved to a policy of confronting the offensive. The religous philosophy displayed is killing us as a society. With "common sense", you can rationalize any behavior you like.

Anybody think that some people are offensive?

Chris

 

[dynasim]

Intentionally offensive.

 

[Mace Canute]

From Authorized Web Seller Fisher Space Pen Co. - Company

Here's a little history about the Fisher Space Pen Company.

In the 1950's there were dozens of ballpoint models, and nearly every one took a different cartridge. In 1953 Paul Fisher invented the "Universal Refill" which could be used in most pens. It was a good seller, since stationery store owners could reduce their stock of assorted refills.

Not content, Paul continued to work on making a better refill. After much experimentation he perfected a refill using thixotropic ink-semisolid until the shearing action of the rolling ball liquefied it-that would flow only when needed. The cartridge was pressurized with nitrogen so that it didn't rely on gravity to make it work. It was dependable in freezing cold and desert heat. It could also write underwater and upside down. The trick was to have the ink flow when you wanted it to, and not to flow the rest of the time, a problem Fisher solved. Fisher's development couldn't have come at a more opportune time. The space race was on, and the astronauts involved in the Mercury and Gemini missions had been using pencils to take notes in space since standard ball points did not work in zero gravity. The Fisher cartridge did work in the weightlessness of outer space and the astronauts, beginning with the October, 1968 Apollo 7 mission began using the Fisher AG-7 Space Pen and cartridge developed in 1966.