Count the Steps on the Floor, Not in the Manual
■ It was supposed to be seven
In the meeting room, Shiraishi wrote out the steps for carrying a specimen: call, load, send, arrive, notify, receive, return. "Seven steps." The next day she spent the whole day beside Hakobukun. Oshiro wiped the drawer, taped on the slip, pressed the destination again… By evening, her memo pad held 28 steps.
■ Some steps are quietly carried by people
In a report observing hospital delivery robots (ACM Interactions), management described a seven-step process, but observation showed 28 steps in actual operation. The gap was the invisible work of the people around the robot.
■ Conclusion: Count on the floor before measuring the effect
Shiraishi went through the extra steps one by one and marked the ones Hakobukun's side could remove. "My job was 28 steps." Oshiro: "Finally, someone counted."
Start from the number you counted on the floor, not the one in the manual.
