The Repairman’s Perfect Week

[00:00:00] [Printed Secret intro.] [00:00:03] The repair shop celebrates its best week. The score has doubled. Yet every customer says the service has become worse. Nobody needs to be lying. [00:00:12] The owner has started rewarding completed repair tickets. At the end of the week, the ledger looks excellent. Three customers tell a less comforting story. [00:00:21] The score counts closed tickets, not different watches. Every visit, including a return, gets a new ticket. A ticket closes after a short bench test. [00:00:33] In the comparison week, three different watches produced three closed tickets. None returned with the same fault during the next seven days. [00:00:46] In the new week, six tickets are closed. Every ticket closes on the day it opens. The owner reports twice as many completed repairs. [00:01:00] Monday’s intakes are watch R seventeen, which stops; R twenty-three, which loses time; and R forty-one, whose alarm fails. Three watches, three tickets. [00:01:14] Tuesday brings R seventeen back. Wednesday brings R twenty-three back. Friday brings R forty-one back. Each return produces another closed ticket. [00:01:28] These are the same physical watches, returning with the same faults. Both comparisons use seven-day follow-ups. The ledger is complete; there are no hidden jobs. [00:01:42] How can the score double while service gets worse? Does six closed tickets mean six different watches were repaired? What would you measure instead? [00:01:54] Here are the two weeks and all six tickets. Compare the serial numbers and return visits. Explain what the score counts, and what it leaves out. [00:02:08] [Thinking pause. Answer follows; pause here to solve.] [00:02:22] The score doubled from three tickets to six, but only three different watches appeared. Each watch generated two tickets because the customer had to return. [00:02:32] All three new-week watches returned with the same fault. Seven-day success after the first visit is zero out of three, compared with three out of three before. [00:02:44] Count lasting repairs and same-fault returns, not just closed paperwork. The records show a misleading measure; they do not prove anyone’s intention. [00:02:54] Another mystery awaits at The Printed Secret. What would your scoreboard measure?