Stories from Factory Floor

The customer called three times. Same complaint. “The product is good, but it is difficult to use.” Quality checked the product. It passed every test. Production checked the process. Everything was within standard. Engineering checked the drawings. No problem there either. So the team visited the customer. They watched how the product was actually being

“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

“Why are we producing this?” Nobody answered. The Production Manager looked at the planning sheet. The order was approved. The material was available. The machine was ready. So production continued. Two days later, the finished products were sitting in the warehouse. Nobody was asking for them. The Planning Manager checked the customer order. The customer