Boss demanded we follow the equipment manual word-for-word with zero deviations, so I complied exactly and watched the whole shift grind to a halt

So a few months back our new plant manager rolls in from corporate with this massive binder that was supposedly the official SOP for running the packaging line. He gathers everyone in the break room and goes on this rant about how we've all been cutting corners and that from now on we're following the manual 100% with no exceptions or we'll be written up. Fine, whatever. I work the night shift on the box folder/gluer and I've been there eight years so I know every quirk of the machine. The manual says at the start of every shift you have to run a full calibration test on the sensors, even if the last shift already did it and nothing changed. It also says you have to log every single test in triplicate on these specific forms that are kept in a locked cabinet. Next night I show up, the day shift left the machine running fine, but I pull out the binder and start the whole calibration sequence. Takes about forty minutes. While that's happening the line is down so the upstream guys are stacking pallets in the aisle. I finish the test, log everything, and we finally start feeding boxes. An hour later the glue applicator sensor throws a false positive because the manual's procedure for wiping the sensor uses a dry cloth only and doesn't account for the new glue formulation that leaves residue. Manual says stop the line immediately and repeat the full calibration. So we do. Another forty minutes. By the end of the shift we'd only run about three hours of actual production instead of eight. Day shift comes in and loses their minds because their numbers are wrecked. Manager pulls me aside and asks why I didn't just skip the redundant steps like everyone used to. I pointed at the binder and said I was following it to the letter like he ordered. He tried to say common sense still applies but the written policy was crystal clear. Next week he quietly revised the manual to add an exception for consecutive shifts with no changes, but not before we had two more nights of the same nonsense. The guys on days still give me shit for it but honestly watching the overtime budget explode was worth every minute of standing around doing nothing.