That’s a helpful question, Steve.  Thank you for pushing for more clarity.

In the article, I compressed what was actually a broader shift in how performance and incentives were aligned. This was not a move to a traditional piece-rate system; as you noted, that approach can introduce its own issues in a lean environment.

The changes focused on removing the unintended incentive to shift output into overtime:

Weekday expectations were clarified at the team level, with visible daily targets so that completing work in regular hours became the norm. The advantage of weekend rework was reduced or eliminated, primarily by tying performance recognition (and where applicable, variable pay) to first-pass yield and weekday completion rather than total repaired volume.

In other words, the system began to reward right-first-time output during regular hours, instead of volume recovered later through overtime.

The exact compensation mechanics can vary by organization (as I'm sure you're aware), which is why I kept that portion at a higher level. The central point is that once the contradiction was removed - a system asking for throughput while rewarding delay and defects - the behaviors and results shifted quickly.