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Most of you have either been in management or around it enough to appreciate this.

This story is meant to be humorous, but it shows the importance of thinking outside the box, and keeping all options open. No idea is a bad idea, so keep sharing those moments of brilliance - no matter how small! Enjoy your day!

A toothpaste factory had a problem. They sometimes shipped empty boxes without the tube of toothpaste inside. This challenged their perceived quality with the buyers and distributors. Understanding how important the relationship with them was, the CEO of the company assembled all of his top people. They decided to hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem. The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, and third-parties selected. Six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution - on time, on budget, and high quality. Everyone in the project was pleased.

They solved the problem by using a high-tech precision scale that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it should. The line would stop, someone would walk over, remove the defective box, and then press another button to re-start the line. As a result of the new package monitoring process, no empty boxes were being shipped out of the factory. With no more customer complaints, the CEO felt the $8 million was well spent.

At the end of the first month, he reviewed the line statistics report and discovered the number of empty boxes picked up by the scale in the first week was consistent with projections, however, the next three weeks were zero! The estimated rate should have been at least a dozen boxes a day. He had the engineers check the equipment and they verified the report as accurate.

Puzzled, the CEO travelled down to the factory, viewed the part of the line where the precision scale was installed, and observed that just ahead of the new $8 million dollar solution sat a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off the belt and into a bin. He asked the line supervisor what that was about.

"Oh, that," the supervisor replied, "the kid from maintenance put it there because the workers got tired of walking over, removing the box and re-starting the line every time the bell rang."

A huge, toxic plant that can burn skin and cause permanent blindness has been found for the first

time in eastern Ontario, prompting calls for a federal response to contain the spread of the

poisonous plant as fear grows no province is immune. A forestry official confirmed two new findings

of giant hogweed last week in Renfrew County , west of Ottawa . It has previously been spotted in

Newfoundland , New Brunswick , Quebec , southwestern Ontario , Alberta and British Columbia .

About 50 plants were spotted in Toronto's Don Valley two weeks ago.

Contact with the weeds clear, watery sap can be very dangerous, Jeff Muzzi, Renfrew County's
forestry manager and weed inspector. What it does to you is pretty ugly, said Mr. Muzzi. It
causes blisters. Large blisters and permanent scarring. What’s left over looks like a scar from
a chemical burn or fire.

Even a tiny trace of sap applied to the eye can singe the cornea, causing temporary or permanent

blindness, he added. The chemicals in the sap, furocoumarins, are carcinogenic and teratogenic,

meaning they can cause cancer and birth defects.

Most provinces have not authorized official weed inspectors to destroy the poisonous plant
because it does not impinge on agriculture. Mr. Muzzi said he only began eradicating the
plant because nobody else would. It’s not really my job, he said. I just thought, somebody
better take the bull by the horns here, cause this stuff is really dangerous.

Giant hogweed is already rampant in parts of Europe including England , where the rock
group Genesis wrote a 1971 ode to the plant and its thick dark warning odour. Native to
the Caucasus Region and Central Asia, it was brought to Europe and North America as a
botanical curiosity in the 19th and 20th centuries and has spread rapidly. It typically grows
on riverbanks, ditches and roadsides.

The risk of infection was so high, Mr. Muzzi wore a Tyvek suit, protective goggles, rubber
gloves, the whole nine yards, to remove it, he said. Which is really nice in 35-degree weather.

The weeds sap, which is found all over the plant, bonds chemically with human skin when
exposed to sunlight and, within 48 hours, leads to inflammation, red colouring and itching,
weeping blisters and eventually black and purplish scars. It’s those flower heads you want
to get rid of, Mr. Muzzi said. I went out, suited up, cut all the flowerheads off and bagged
them. Then I nuked the plants with Round-Up. [Wouldn't it make more sense to make a
bonfire of them??? If the hogweed doesn't get you, then the cancer caused by Round-Up
will, is that it?? ...helen. I do admire that he is doing something about it. If we wait until
the government does something, the plant will be growing on our front steps and it will
cost a lot more than everyone doing a small part now.]

Most susceptible to infection are gardeners, campers and children, who have been known
to use the plants large, hollow stems as play telescopes or pea-shooters. If a person takes
a weed-whacker to this stuff, they get the sap all over, Mr. Muzzi said. While the weed is
on the federal governments official noxious weeds list, there is apparently no national or
provincial strategy in place to stop its spread. Guy Baillargeon, a biologist with the
Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility, called the weed an emerging problem, not yet
a national one. Very few people are aware of it right now, he added. I am not aware that
this species is on any provincial list yet.

Mr. Baillargeon said a federal plan is in the works to deal with invasive species in general,
but not hogweed in particular. I believe the plant has been here long enough that it would
now be difficult to eradicate it, Mr. Baillargeon said. So I don’t expect that things will
happen overnight. But we need to talk about it. A 2005 study of the plants spread in
Canada said it was likely to continue for the next 25 to 100 years with worsening ecological,
economic and health effects.

National Post

OTHER PICTURES OF GIANT HOGWEED � IT GROWS ALONG ROADSIDES, DITCHES ETC

Giant Hogweed Leaves Have Jagged Edges As Shown Below

Burns Caused By Giant Hogweed Below