Stories from the Factory Floor #03

“Don’t change anything.”

That was the instruction from the Production Manager.

The line had been running for years.

Same machines.

Same layout.

Same work method.

Same problems.

One young engineer noticed that operators were making the same small adjustment almost every hour.

She asked why.

An operator replied:

“Because the machine doesn’t work properly without it.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

“About three years.”

The engineer checked the machine settings.

The adjustment was never part of the standard work.

It existed only because operators had learned to compensate for the problem.

The team finally fixed the root cause.

The adjustment disappeared.

So did several small delays every shift.

Nothing dramatic had happened.

No new machine was bought.

No extra people were added.

The factory simply removed a problem that everyone had learned to live with.

The most dangerous problems in a factory are not always the big ones.

Sometimes they are the small problems people have accepted as “normal.”