Is the dream of devising an efficient plan of attack for big airline maintenance jobs an impossible goal? Not necessarily. Many years ago when I started my engineering career I didn't care about the planning. Nobody did. Engineers came to their desks in the morning and continued doing the jobs they stopped the day before. During the day, they stopped their work when the telephone rang. The telephone call can be compared with an interrupt request in a computer. The engineer will stop reading, writing, or thinking and start something totally different. After answering the phone, they would proceed with the job they were doing, until the next interrupt request. Was there any planning? No. Just be guided by the events. The engineering environment was not very productive, and engineering productivity was not an issue. The outside world was happy as long as the engineer responded to the interrupt request.
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