Name:   Old Diver - Subject:   Listen to Your Workers. Date:   1/5/2014 10:36:42 AM

An automatic packaging system occasionally failed to insert a tube of tooth paste in the carton. Seeing the problem, management hired an engineering firm, at considerable expense, to design and build a system that automatically weighed each carton to insure it was full. When the system detected an empty carton, the line stopped and the operator had to remove the empty and restart the line. During the first week quite a number of empties were caught. Then the machine stopped detecting any emptied, however, all cartons were full.

  Management decided to investigate and found one of the inspectors who explained that he every time an empty was detected he had to get up, remove the empty and restart the line. He tred of this and just aimed a fan blowing across the line. The light empty boxes were ejected automatically!