# Toothpaste



## Callum-TT (Jun 3, 2013)

Those of you who have even a slightly mechanical mind will appreciate 
this story...

A toothpaste factory had a problem. They sometimes shipped empty boxes 
without the tube of toothpaste 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 all of 
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. At the end of the first month, he 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 that 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 bloody bell rang."

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


----------



## j8keith (Jun 26, 2009)

Very good and also true to management thinking. :lol:


----------



## pw1960 (Aug 3, 2012)

:lol: :lol:


----------



## sparkymarky (Nov 28, 2010)

8)


----------

