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Your story now reminds me of our new plant manager back in the days of the last financial crisis. He was newly appointed as the supreme leader at this automoti
by molteanu 7y ago
Your story now reminds me of our new plant manager back in the days of the last financial crisis.
He was newly appointed as the supreme leader at this automotive plant. Uncertainty was high, this being 2007, so people were let go, and costs reduced with any means possible. So he went into production and one day decided that it is too cold in the storage area. He orders his people to increase the temperature with a few degrees since that would save tons of money. People protest, he hears only "blaa-blaa", and his request is implemented.
A few days later, it turns out that barrels upon barrels of chemicals in the storage area needed to be kept under a certain temperature. So the stuff solidified and it was now only good for the dump site. Out to garbage the chemicals went, new stuff was ordered, production was stopped until the new stuff arrived and temperature was restored back to normal after that.
- thombat 7y agoSeems like an exemplary case for "Chesterton's fence": https://www.chesterton.org/taking-a-fence-down/ https://www.chesterton.org/taking-a-fence-down/ Often the most important comments in a codebase are signs on such fences, preserving hard-won knowledge of pitfalls in software and human processes.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe required storage temperature for chemicals being stored is a pretty obvious thing to document clearly. It's also not a wild idea to have adjustments to the storage conditions follow some sort of review process. Chesterton's fence is sort of about understanding something that isn't necessarily obvious, changing storage conditions in an industrial environment without checking requirements is neglect rather than ignorance.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> neglect rather than ignorance Reasonably avoidable ignorance of essential knowledge is a manner in which neglect creates disaster; ignorance and neglect are not opposed concepts.
- maxerickson 7y agoI suppose I am arguing that this is far more obvious than 'reasonably avoidable ignorance'. I suppose I am also arguing that there is a mechanistic requirement of the role 'plant manager', where they shouldn't make changes without understanding the impacts. That's somewhat different than ignorance, because it's pretty much their job to do what it takes to act correctly, avoiding assumption and the like.
- tempguy9999 7y agoBefore I heard of Chesterton's Fence, I had read of the Hurrican Lantern Effect. Pretty similar http://quichemoraine.com/2009/06/the-hurricane-lantern-effect/ http://quichemoraine.com/2009/06/the-hurricane-lantern-effec...
- thombat 7y agoI genuinely like your argument: although I've seen a few too many managers that exemplified the Peter Principle it's not unreasonable to hope that a "plant manager" is aware that a web of process exists, even if they can't immediately cite it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]