A business man told me a story – that he set up a production line of 10 staff in two lines to pack his grapes
for a Supermarket, 4 staff on each line to measure the soft fruit out and one Quality Assessor at the end of each line, to check for damaged fruit, weigh each pullet was in tolerance (+/- one grape – UK Supermarkets ARE fussy) and that each pullet was flat to ensure they stacked safely and squarely.A couple years later he employed a consultant to do some other work and the consultant noticed in passing that the 2 Quality Assessors were doing almost no work and told the businessman. What the business had not realised was that the 4 packers on each line has learnt over time how to scoop up the exact weight of fruit, remove any damaged fruit and pack them flat as part of their job routine. But it took someone from the outside to look at the packing system and point out the flaws. The business man congratulated all the staff and was able to reassign the 2 Quality Assessors and save 20% of the packing staff wages, which was their biggest controllable cost !!