> Factory lines at a standstill because some cog in the machine is broken Many years ago I helped prototype a system that would track product flows in a manufa

> Factory lines at a standstill because some cog in the machine is broken Many years ago I helped prototype a system that would track product flows in a manufacturing process. The existing process for dealing with blockages was to employ a 'progress chaser' - a person whose specific job was to walk around the factory looking for problems of this sort and who had the authority to try and resolve them (e.g. to retask people or machines). The existing management had two problems with this: 1) The person who did it was not easily replaceable if hit by a bus because of their very detailed knowledge and charismatic authority 2) His solutions sometimes addressed the 'noisiest' problem, not necessarily the one that had the biggest impact on the bottom line. Needless to say, our prototype failed to solve the problem, but it made me realise that dealing with these blockages can be really difficult.