Further
automation has generally been prevented by lack of time or insuf?¬?cient payback.
Similar problems faced the embroiderers: they could have built a machine that would
just embroider our logo, but we needed our order by the next week, and the cost of
building the machine would be higher than the size of the order.
Fortunately, the shop we went to had a con?¬?gurable embroidery machine, into
which the expert embroiderer could specify our logo, and which was then able to
produce that logo automatically and reliably. Entering the logo into the machine
required a new set of skills and a start-up cost. Once entered, anyone in the shop could
run the machine to sew the logo on different material, in different colors, rotated,
scaled, stretched, or duplicated in an endless pattern. These differences are analogous
to the variability between different pieces of code from the same team, although
clearly in software there is far more variation per piece of code in the same project than
there is per sewing of the same logo in embroidery. The basic situation was however
the same: for all the stakeholders, this con?¬?gurable automation approach represented
a clear saving over the other choices.
NO SWEAT SHOPS??”BUT NO FRITZ LANG??™S METROPOLIS EITHER 409
Clearly, the expert embroiderer who could specify a new logo to the machine had
an important role.
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