Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

You start on the floor, not at a desk. Walk the line, watch where product piles up, talk to the operators who already know what the problem is. Back at the desk you pull the production data, build a model or a spreadsheet, and work out whether moving a machine or changing a shift pattern actually pays. Then the hard part: convincing a supervisor who has run that line for fifteen years to change how it works. Afternoons go to meetings about cost, quality and next quarter's capacity.