Of course it’s a parable. That doesn’t make it any less pithy.
See also: The Russians Used a Pencil
A Short Story for Engineers
11–20 of 128 posts
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#12Apocryphal?
It’s certainly hard to imagine any real system being designed to stop the production line instead of just diverting the empties into a bin.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#13Apocryphal?
It’s certainly hard to imagine any real system being designed to stop the production line instead of just diverting the empties into a bin.
I think stopping the line would be the correct thing to do as having an empty box is a thing that should never happen (of course, the upstream issue should be fixed first) and if it does happen chances are something is very wrong and it's better to be safe than sorry.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#14Of course it’s a parable. That doesn’t make it any less pithy. See also: The Russians Used a Pencil
They literally used it in a Blockbuster Hindi movie called '3 idiots' as if it was a real story. A huge section of the population takes these urban legends seriously. But i guess as long as the message is decent , no harm done ?
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#15Even as an apocryphal parable to illustrate something about the extravagance of the solutions found by extravagant processes, doesn't this kinda fall short? The $20 solution is only found as a response to the $8M solution, which introduced a measurement and an incentive. I read this as suggesting that (a) workers closest to the situation can offer solutions if (b) measurements are in place and incentives are aligned and (c) they're given enough freedom to deviate from top-down processes.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#16When looking for a solution, instead should look for a right question to ask.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#17Apocryphal?
I assume it's meant as a parable.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#18After reading the problem definition, my reaction was: you'd either weigh it and use a solenoid to kick it into a defect box, or you'd use air to knock the empty boxes from the line. I've seen both methods in use on production lines; so I assume that this story is something made up by someone trying to sell some kind of consultancy service?
It's not just made up, the story is almost a word for word translation of a story that's been circulating for years in Chinese. Of course people have called bullshit on it before.
If you can read Chinese, you can check the thorough debunking of this myth right here, from someone that actually works in a soap factory: https://www.zhihu.com/question/27132006
And that was from 2014.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#19Business people love these kind of stories that “prove” it’s not necessary to spend money to fix problems.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#20Obviously an urban legend, and one of a series of legends in which a menial worker comes up with a simple solution to an apparently complex problem. Snopes has details on some of the others: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blue-collar-innovation/
The one about the expense of adding another elevator reminds me of a similar story where they just install mirrors on every floor and then the complaints about slow elevators stop.