Rolls and Rolls of Paper
"And why do we have these hundreds of rolls?"- my question to my boss
Many years ago I started my career in a steel mill. After starting in the company I shared an office with a co-worker. But fairly quickly, my boss got a new role and he moved to a new office that was bigger and his office became open. So I asked him and he allowed me to move into his former office.
Well, that might seem like a great move except the office was full of crap. It literally took me a year to get rid of all of the stuff that was there. One of the first thing I noticed was that inside my new office was a cabinet full of paper rolls with graphs on them. These graphs were generated by a machine that determined the speed of a breaker.
Being a newbie I asked the question. My boss was so proud and took a couple of graphs for a breaker that showed the results from the last two tests spanning a five year period. He laid the graphs on my desk and said, "Look we can compare the plots by placing them one on top of the other."
I looked enlightened. But I asked a silly question, "So no one ever converted these graphs into data and mathematically analyzed the data?" The look on his face was one of confusion.
His team had collected data on probably 50 breakers in outside yards for the last 25 years and all they had to show for it was graphs. They could not mathematically show whether their opinions were correct by analyzing the graphs and converting it into information.
So I created a procedure and systematically got rid of all of the papers by analyzing them. I looked like a genius and then I can get rid of the cabinet.
Today's question is:
"Do you question enough?"
"And why do we have these hundreds of rolls?"- my question to my boss
Many years ago I started my career in a steel mill. After starting in the company I shared an office with a co-worker. But fairly quickly, my boss got a new role and he moved to a new office that was bigger and his office became open. So I asked him and he allowed me to move into his former office.
Well, that might seem like a great move except the office was full of crap. It literally took me a year to get rid of all of the stuff that was there. One of the first thing I noticed was that inside my new office was a cabinet full of paper rolls with graphs on them. These graphs were generated by a machine that determined the speed of a breaker.
Being a newbie I asked the question. My boss was so proud and took a couple of graphs for a breaker that showed the results from the last two tests spanning a five year period. He laid the graphs on my desk and said, "Look we can compare the plots by placing them one on top of the other."
I looked enlightened. But I asked a silly question, "So no one ever converted these graphs into data and mathematically analyzed the data?" The look on his face was one of confusion.
His team had collected data on probably 50 breakers in outside yards for the last 25 years and all they had to show for it was graphs. They could not mathematically show whether their opinions were correct by analyzing the graphs and converting it into information.
So I created a procedure and systematically got rid of all of the papers by analyzing them. I looked like a genius and then I can get rid of the cabinet.
Today's question is:
"Do you question enough?"
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