Dear Henry

Dear Mr. Henry Ford,

I wish to write to pass on some feedback about your marvellous invention, the automated production line.

This fabulous invention allows us to be more productive by providing a constant stream of work right where we are, and at the same time saves so very much space around the factory. It is even adjustable in speed, such that when the product changes in nature, we can adjust our workspace appropriately to maximise effiency. This also tends to set a competitive pace on the factory floor, and allows us to strive each day to beat the previous day's efforts.

The problem I have encountered however, is that those who run the factory are focussed solely on this angle of productivity, and not on the abilities of the people working on the line, as should rightly be the case. Quite frequently we find that we have to stop the line to catch up with it, because it is adjusted to run faster than anyone can keep up with it. This means that people working on other parts of the line must endure intermittent breaks in the middle of what they are doing. We also endure this when other people have to stop the line to catch up. When this occurs I notice that a supervisor usually appears from some unseen doorway to complain that we are standing around doing nothing.

Mr Ford, I do not like your production line, nor the frustration and anger it causes. I suspect that you never intended them to be used quite as they are, but like so many other good inventions, it has turned on us and now makes us subject to it. I wish you had invented something more pleasant and peaceful. An apple tree perhaps? Or a more beautiful kind of duck... ?

Sincerely,
Toby Miller (esq)