Law #14: It doesn't matter how well your machine works, someone will find a way to break it.
I was in line at the Subway (I prefer Gourmet Gallery but I felt like a change of pace). Got me a footlong turkey sub. One thing you'll notice about how they work at Subway is they follow the assembly line structure. It's only 3 steps: first person puts together the basic sandwich, second person handles the topping and the third checks you out. For the most part it's perfect. However today it broke. See they ran out of lettuce so we had to wait a bit while they got more. The person behind me had a shorter sandwich with practically no extra toppings but the lettuce so she was waiting for me finish my sandwich. Ah, but she didn't wait. She jumped past me and went right to the checkout. Had I not been watching where my sandwich was and if we had similar sized sandwiches it might have been a mix-up. She broke the assembly line simply by skipping me.
I tell this story as a warning to be vigilant. Keep an eye on your machine and be ready to fix it. Somebody
will break it.
No comments:
Post a Comment