John was a lonely chap, travelling the M25 with only a sat nav as his partner and the brief fulfilment of a successful install; a career is what John desired. John worked hard day in day out and through time managed to manoeuvre himself from service work and into applications. It was here that he found himself tasked with a production line problem within a well-known toothpaste factory.

The factory manager had discovered that a number of the boxes were being sent out on a daily basis without the toothpaste tube. The issue was causing concern, with major resellers threatening to cancel future orders. John was called and asked to help save the factory.

Using his years of experience and knowledge John came up with the solution, he solved it by installing high-tech precision scales at the end of the conveyer. The scales would sound a bell whenever a box crossed the scales that was minus a tube and therefore too light. At this point production would stop and someone would need to walk over and push the empty box off the line and press the restart button.

Result, a fool proof solution all under the £800,000 budget and surely another rung up on John's career goal of Engineering Directorship.

Several months passed and the Engineering Manager of the toothpaste factory decided it would be a great idea to check on his investment and calculate what improvements it had made. He printed the report off and to his surprise it read. No empty boxes were shipped. A 100% accurate process - AMAZING, FANTASTIC, OUTSTANDING, John you engineering genius he thought. He then checked the number of empty boxes that had been removed, zero, nothing, nil. How could that be? Something must be wrong with the report.

The Engineering Manager, puzzled and confused, went to ask the Line Manager. As he walked passed the new high-tech scales he noticed a small £10 office fan pointed onto the conveyer and saw it blowing off any empty boxes that passed. On seeing the Line Manager he asked "Well?" looking puzzled at the fan, the reply was "ha, that, one of the production lads put it there as he got tired of walking over every time the bell rang!"

John needed a new job and quick......