大学英语精读-1 Unit Six : Sam Adams，Industrial Engineer -2

I didn't have a job yet. Mr. Hobbs, a friend of my father's, owned a small shirt factory in town.

Within the past five years it had grown from twenty to eighty workers.

Mr. 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. I was really amazed at what I saw.

Most curious of all, there was no quality control whatsoever.

No one inspected the final product of the factory.

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. The tables where the workers sat were very high and uncomfortable.

Except for a half hour at lunchtime, there were no breaks in the day to relieve the boring work. There was no music.

The walls of the workrooms were a dull gray color.

I was amazed that the workers hadn't gone on strike.

Furthermore, the work flow was irregular.

There was one especially absent-minded young man in the assembly line who sewed on buttons.