Stories from the Factory Floor #05

“We have always done it this way.”

The sentence came up three times during the meeting.

The team was discussing a process that required six approvals before a job could move to production.

Nobody could explain why all six were still necessary.

So they went looking.

Approval 1 was added after a quality issue ten years ago.

Approval 2 was added when a new manager joined.

Approval 3 came from an old customer requirement.

Approvals 4, 5 and 6?

Nobody knew.

The team checked the old records.

The reasons had disappeared.

Only the approvals remained.

They tested the process by removing unnecessary steps one at a time.

Six approvals became three.

Then two.

The job that once took two days to release could now move forward in a few hours.

Nothing had been wrong with the people.

The process had simply collected rules over the years.

That happens in many factories.

A temporary solution becomes a permanent rule.

An old requirement stays after the requirement disappears.

And eventually, nobody questions it.

Every process deserves to be questioned—not because it is bad, but because it may have outlived its purpose.

“We have always done it this way” is not a reason. It is an invitation to ask, “Why?”