I still long for the day when I can go to the job manager and specifically request a microcline scepter that menaces with spikes of rose quartz.
I think this is the answer, deepening the use of the job manager for specific requests.
I think, though, that the Nobilic requests of "I want three harps" are
supposed to be difficult. Tasking your <foo>crafters to repeatedly make stone/wood/metal/bone instruments (or whatever materials you can make instruments out of, I forget) hoping that they eventually make harps before the Noble gets impatient (and, ironically, after having chanced to make millions of the darned things out of spare lumps of stone before His/Her Highness decided they wanted some
new ones) is part of the deal. Toady might have to adjust the needs. "I require three
well-crafted stone harps by the end of the month. None of your masterful nonsense, my good
mandwarf. It's a present for a 3rd-cousin of mine, from one of those provincial outposts on the plains, and I don't want them getting ideas above their station... I don't care if you're too skilled to make them at that quality, I command you to make it so, even if it means getting an apprentice and starting them from scratch. And you
will be judged responsible for the job, regardless."