The Sampler
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009In a certain store where they sell puddings, a number of these delicious things are laid out in a row during the Christmas season.” If you ask my mother how I happened to become an industrial engineer, she’ll tell you that I have always been one.
She means that I have always wanted everything to be well organized and neat. Here you may select the one which is most to your taste, and you are even allowed to sample them before coming to a decision.When I was still in elementary school, I liked to keep my socks in the upper left-hand drawer of my bureau, my underwear in the upper right drawer, shirts in the middle drawer, and pants, neatly folded, in the bottom drawer.
In fact, I was the efficiency expert for the whole family.
I have often wondered whether some people, who had no intention of making a purchase, would take advantage of this privilege.I used to organize my father’s tools, my mother’s kitchen utensils, my sister’s boyfriends.
I needed to be efficient. One day I asked this question of the shop girl, and I learned it was indeed the case.I wanted to be well organized.
“”Now there’s one old gentleman, for instance,”" she told me, “”he comes here almost every week and samples each one of the puddings, though he never buys anything, and I suspect he never will.For me, there was a place for everything and everything was always in its place. I remember him from last year before that, too.These qualities gave me a good foundation for a career in industrial engineering.
Unfortunately, I was also a bit bossy and I wasn’t a very good listener. Well, let him come if he wants it, and welcome to it.You’ll see what I mean when I tell you about the first project I ever did after I finished my bachelor’s degree at the university.
After graduation I returned home to my small town in Indiana. And what’s more, I hope there are a lot more stores where he can go and get his share.I didn’t have a job yet. He looks as if he needed it all right, and I suppose they can afford it.Mr. “”
She was still speaking when an elderly gentleman limped up to the counter and began looking closely at the row of puddings with great interest.Hobbs, a friend of my father’s, owned a small shirt factory in town.
“”Why, that’s the very gentleman I’ve been telling you about,”" whispered the shop girl.Within the past five years it had grown from twenty to eighty workers. buy wow gold “” Just watch him now.Mr. “” And then turning to him:”" Would you like to sample them, sir.Hobbs was worried that his plant was getting too big and inefficient, so he asked me to come in on a short-term basis as a consultant.
I went to the plant and spent about a week looking around and making notes. cheap wow gold Here’s spoon for you to use.I was really amazed at what I saw.
Most curious of all, there was no quality control whatsoever. “”
The elderly gentleman, who was poorly but neatly dressed, accepted the spoon and began eagerly to sample one after another of the puddings, only braking off occasionally to wipe his red eyes with a large torn handkerchief.No one inspected the final product of the factory. mp3
“”This is quite good.As a result some of the shirts that were put in boxes for shipment were missing one or two buttons, the collar, even a sleeve sometimes!
The working conditions were poor. “”
“”This is not bad either, but a little too heavy.The tables where the workers sat were very high and uncomfortable. wow gold “”
All the time it was quite evident that he sincerely believed that he might eventually buy one of these puddings, and I am positive that he did not for a moment feel that he was in any way cheating the store.Except for a half hour at lunchtime, there were no breaks in the day to relieve the boring work. Poor old chap! Probably he had come down in the world and this sampling was all that was left him from the time when he could afford to come and select his favorite pudding.There was no music. wow gold
Amidst the crowd of happy, prosperous looking Christmas shoppers, the little black figure of the old man seemed pitiful and out of place, and in a burst of benevolence, I went up to him and said:
“”Pardon me, sir, will you do me a favor.The walls of the workrooms were a dull gray color. Let me purchase you one of these puddings.I was amazed that the workers hadn’t gone on strike.
Furthermore, the work flow was irregular. wow gold It would give me such pleasure.There was one especially absent-minded young man in the assembly line who sewed on buttons. “”
He jumped back as if he had been stung, and the blood rushed into his wrinkled face.After a while I recognized him as “”Big Jim,”" who used to sit behind me in math class in high school.