[evolve2k]

Interesting manufacturing story that does sound pretty crappy.

To bring it across to Andon and Lean, Deming literally addressed this as one of his 14 points of quality management that Lean manufacturing follows:

Point 11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.

What’s important here is not that there are buttons in a factory but rather the culture that goes along with their usage.

Point 8. Drive out fear, seems relevant here also.

Sorry you experienced this.