First thing first

Manufacturing engineers at this plant are incredibly talented, says an IT pilot fish who works there.

"The problem with this workforce is that the engineers believe their talent crosses all lines, including fixing any problem having to do with computers and networks," fish says.

"One of the guys I work with has been in the industry since the late '70s. He's not a braggart by any means; in fact, he's very quiet. But the engineers will only call him to assist on a problem as a last resort, because he usually locates almost any computer problem within a few minutes due to his vast years of experience.

"And it drives them nuts!"

So when a computer-controlled assembly line goes down at 3 a.m., a quickly formed task force of engineers immediately identifies that it's a network problem, based on the error message on the PC that controls the line: "RPC server too busy to complete operation."

The engineers run an emergency cable to eliminate that as a source of the problem. The problem persists.

The engineers begin uninstalling and reinstalling software and then try to restart the controller program. The problem persists.

"By noon, the managers were panicking and were ready to send people home for the day, as the line was stopped dead," says fish.

"Finally one of the managers paged my co-worker. I decided to accompany him to watch him in action."

As soon as fish's co-worker arrives, the group of engineers begins a rapid-fire recitation of what's wrong and everything they've done. Their conclusion: Obviously, the server in the computer room was the problem and needed to be rebuilt.

Fish's co-worker listens quietly, then thoughtfully asks, "Did anyone bother to reboot before trying to run new cables or install software?"

The engineers' faces drop as they realize that, during all the uninstalls and reinstalls, no one ever rebooted the PC.

One of the engineers says quietly, "No. That can't be it."

Reports fish, "The PC was rebooted, and within three minutes the line was up and running.

"My co-worker then simply turned and walked off, while the engineers began arguing among themselves."

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