Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: "Michael Turner" <leap@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Feb 2007 20:57:03 -0800
On Feb 25, 7:53 am, Monte Davis <monte.da...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Michael Turner" <l...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
(I was once told that IBM kept offering employees incentives
for improving the process for making Selectric typewriters, down to
the point where they were shaving 1 cent off the cost per unit. Given
the sales volume, it was actually worth an engineer's time to think
for a few weeks about cost savings that low.)
I wrote the award citations for IBM's technical achievement awards for
some years. Instead of a plaque and a handshake, they used formulas
that gave TA winners a defined fraction of what their ideas had made
(or saved) for IBM.
Having been involved in many corporate recognition events, I can say
confidently that nothing gives the recipients -- or their peers in the
audience -- quite the same warm, fuzzy feeling of being appreciated as
a six-figure check.
Monte Davishttp://montedavis.livejournal.com
It's a good incentive system, but it can have perverse effects. I've
heard of cases where engineers designing a new production line would
come up with some cost-saving innovations that they would hold in
reserve until after the line was in production, then pass along to
collusive partners on the line, who would then announce the
improvement, collect the prize, and kick most of it back to their
buddies in the design bureau. Obviously it's more expensive to
introduce an innovation on an existing production line than it is to
design it in from the beginning. I doubt the practice was rife; maybe
it's even urban legend. It's not really an argument against this kind
of incentive system, it's more an argument for extending equity back
to the production designers as well, and maybe IBM responded
constructively in that way.
-michael turner
.
- References:
- Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Totorkon
- Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Joe Strout
- Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Derek Lyons
- Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Ian Woollard
- Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Fred J . McCall
- Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Michael Turner
- Re: Vision of the three Rs: Regular, Reliable and Reusable
- From: Monte Davis
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