Early numbers show the Armys new fitness test is reducing injuries in basic training

[JayhawkSD]

2. Revisiting history and calling it invention.

Some years ago I read an article about a company who had come up with a brilliant idea of having the manufacturing division participate in the design of products, finding that doing so greatly reduced the cost of production. They cited an instance where, in making a control panel, seven different fasteners were used, requiring the worker to lay down and pick up five different tools in the course of assembling the panel. The production manager pointed out that the fasteners could all be the same, thereby allowing the assembler to do all the work with one tool, saving a ton of time by not having to pick up and put down tools for each panel.

My reaction was astonishment. When, I wondered, did they stop considering production costs when designing new items? Rather than praising someone for redesigning the panel to get rid of the seven different fasteners, I would hunt down and fire the idiot who specified them in the first place.

In my day, production cost considerations were always part of design. So they stop doing it, probably because some bean counter thought it saved a few bucks in the design phase, and when they rediscover it they think they are brilliant. No, they were stupid to stop doing it to begin with.

In 1959 the first phase of boot camp was, "Okay, lets run you through some physical tests to see what you are capable of," after which they told us what career paths we could sign up for.

Now, 58 years later, some REMF comes up with "Lets run them through some physical tests to see what they are capable of before we tell them what career paths they can sign up for," and thinks he deserves a fucking medal for his brilliance.