A Tale Of Two Bottles

A long long time ago, there was a factory that made soft drink bottles.

At first, the bottles were made of plastic.

For many years, the plastic bottles were sterilized by heating them in a giant oven.

The bottles were always capped before they went into the oven. Nobody remembered the purpose of this step, but the company had always done this.

Sometimes a few bottles will be deformed during the sterilization process.

Employees will examine the results and lower the heating temperature or duration to reduce the number of deformed bottles in the next batch.

One day, new management arrived and they were not satisfied with the performance of the company. Glass bottles had become very popular on the market. They wanted to expand their product line to include glass bottles.

Employees were hastily informed that a new production line for glass bottles is being constructed and some of them would be immediately re-deployed to the new line.

However, in order to cut costs, the same sterilization oven would be used for both plastic and glass bottles.

To step up the production volume, the time that each batch of bottles spent in the oven had to be reduced. The temperature was raised to compensate for the shorter heating cycle.

Employees were told to use the usual procedures to sterilize both types of bottles.

When plastic bottles were subject to the higher temperatures, their deformation rate increased and wastage went up immediately. Some of the bottles were so horribly bloated that the employees were alarmed. They alerted the management immediately.

In contrast, the rigid glass bottles kept their shape and there was no wastage at all.

Management winked at each other with glee.

They realized that a plastic bottle will show signs of distress when subject to slightly more heat and pressure. It is a weak material.

On the other hand, a glass bottle can withstand high temperature and pressure while remaining perfectly shaped. It is a strong material.

A strong company is built from strong materials.

Management loved this symbolism. The employees were ordered to switch to glass bottles and increase production volume to unprecedented levels.

Profits went up.

Since every new batch of glass bottles looked physically unaffected by the sterilization process, the oven was set to higher and higher temperatures.

Then one day, something went horribly wrong.

The entire sterilization oven exploded, showering the factory with deadly glass shrapnel. A number of employees standing nearby were killed and many more were injured.

The temperature had been set so high that the air pressure inside the glass bottles caused them to explode in unison.

An investigation revealed that the procedure of capping the bottle before sterilization was responsible for the tragedy.

Management absolved all responsibility because this procedure was a company tradition that predated their arrival.

Instead, they blamed the employees for negligence and not exercising common sense.

Some of the employees who didn't die in the tragedy were thus slapped with a fine and a demotion.

The accident scene was quickly cleaned up and a new sterilization oven was ordered. Employees were ordered to go back to work.

The profits this year was much higher than last year's, so the management gave themselves a generous raise.