Why is this important? The study showed that the turmoil this
represents undermines a factory’s ability to operate efficiently—
driving up inventories and extending production schedules, compromising
operational predictability. As described in Chapter 1,
workarounds to standard procedures create a greater potential for errors,
requiring additional inspections and bookkeeping to ensure critical
defects do not escape (particularly critical in producing aircraft
because of the criticality of protecting flight safety). And the uncertainty
this causes has an amplifying effect up and down the line, impacting
scheduling or causing workarounds in the many shops and
suppliers feeding the component items that support these operations.