You might have read a story about a toothpaste factory that spent a large sum of money to come up with a sophisticated system to identify empty boxes before they reach the end of the production line. For those who haven't read the story, reliabilityweb.com has a nice write up by Cliff Williams, further explaining the story, digging deep into some unseen facts. Before reading that, let's focus on the other side of it. To sum it up, a toothpaste factory spent millions for a six months long project by a consultancy firm, which provided the factory with a solution. Whenever an empty box is detected, the line stopped and a bell rang, so that someone had to remove the empty box in order to get the line running again. Soon after the modifications, the management could observe a huge improvement, where the empty box count hit zero in few weeks. Surprised by the level of value addition, they went on an inspection tour, only to fi...