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Crikey! Thanks. That's still a heck of a lot of work in those hours, with very little downtime. I do a lot of 'proceduralised' jobs, but I'm 'lucky' in that I
by detritus 5y ago
Crikey! Thanks. That's still a heck of a lot of work in those hours, with very little downtime.
I do a lot of 'proceduralised' jobs, but I'm 'lucky' in that I get to define and hone the procedure and then it tends only to be necessary for a few hours or a day or three, before I move onto something else entirely. I get a wee quick out of making things more efficient, then get to move on before my brain calcifies.
The thought of acting a mere part of a machine for 8 hours a day, weeks, months and years on end is ... well, it makes me appreciate my job, even at its worst!
- wpietri 5y agoTotally. I only did factory work as summer jobs and loved it because it was fun to learn a new domain and try to optimize things. But yeah, I would have been deathly bored eventually. Interestingly, Toyota's factory culture is very different. It's part of company philosophy to seek continuous improvement. They're also big on cross-training and investing in staff. Basically, they respect that hands come with brains, and that it's worth engaging both. I suspect I would have enjoyed that much more. If you're curious, the This American Life show on NUMMI gets at the contrast between the two approaches.
- detritus 5y agoKaizen culture was a big meme back in the 80s and 90s in the North of England as Japanese car manufacturers set up shop and the differences to then-declining local manufacturing culture became evident.