How (not) to speed up the system
Electronic components manufacturer's shipping system is having problems, but the original programmer is long gone, so this pilot fish is asked to take a look.
"It's a pretty simple application to use," says fish. "The operator is supposed to scan the serial number of each item as it's placed in a box, and then a label is printed with the box quantity, along with a unique ID and barcode.
"The barcode is then scanned in another system which is used by the shipping company to track the box and its contents."
The system only allows a certain number of parts to go in each box, depending on the part, and each part can only be scanned once. But something is going wrong: The quantity printed on the label is far greater than the software should allow, and that's causing problems in the shipping department.