I worked with a group of ten women who worked on an assembly line and had been given the opportunity to meet weekly to discuss, with their supervisor, what could be done to improve their assembly line.
The product that they assembled was a model of a remotely controllable, outside rear view mirror. The control was a mechanical device in which three wires moved the mirror when a knob was rotated. The ends of the wires had ferrules that were crimped into the knob assembly by a crimping machine.
There was a consensus about the biggest problem. The crimping machine often broke down, bringing the line to a halt, sometimes several times a day. When the line stopped there was a wait for maintenance to arrive and tinker with the machine. The team took pride in reaching its production targets, and this machine interfered with that goal far too often.
The supervisor agreed that this was a problem. He too was frustrated that the fix was never permanent. He had complained up the line with no results.
