General Electric was having trouble with a large mechanical system in one of their primary facilities. Neither the service technicians nor the staff engineers could locate the source of the problem. After exhausting their internal resources it was decided that they would contact the engineer who had designed and built the facility originally. The engineer, now retired, agreed to come in to locate the problem as a consultant. He toured the facility with the staff engineers and looked over the equipment making his assessment. After a short time he walked up to a large boiler and looked at it for a few moments. He reached into his pocket and took out a piece of chalk. He then placed a large X in the lower right side of the machinery. He turned to the engineers and said, “Your problem is here behind the X” and then we walked out of the facility.
The staff engineers opened the equipment and sure enough identified and solved the problem. The next day the retired engineer sent an invoice to the company for $10,000.
The accounting department took no issue with the amount but requested that the engineer itemize the invoice. An hour later the engineer returned the corrected invoice with 2 line items;
Placing an X in chalk on dysfunctional equipment $1.00
Knowing where to place the X $9,999.00
Total: $10,000.00