Imperiled Start Up

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
Ralph Waldo Emerson


I was in charge of a new plant start up -- a risky assignment since many launches went badly, and this was my first try at it. My responsibility was to take an empty shell of a building and populate it with machines and people, processes and systems, and generate profit.

This launch depended on implementing some unproven new technology, a red flag. The technology in question was elaborate mechanical tooling which deployed in a CNC machine to cut a precise spherical radius on the ID of a casting. To perform this feat, the CNC equipment loaded the casting, then the tool, in the shape of a cylinder with a slot cut out of the side, was inserted into the casting opening. The tool had an ingenious mechanical device to deploy the cutter from the slot using a spine-like grooved lever. The cutting was done at high speed (turning the tool), and at the end of the cycle, the tool was quickly stopped then the cutter was retracted using spring action, hiding the cutter away in the cylinder again, and the tool was pulled from the casting. Nice Idea!

We got the equipment in and set up. We hired great people. We did a lot of training. All the while, I kept hearing about broken cutters. This was troubling because it was unproven technology and the entire start up depended on success. Not only that, cutters cost over $100 each, so the budget was feeling the pain.

We talked to the experts at the toolmaker. They tried to fix the problem. They kept trying, but to no avail. Finally, after weeks and weeks of trying, it became clear that this start up was in peril.

I ordered autopsies of each broken cutter. We opened up some tools to see what was happening. The engineers were puzzled and befuddled. We were asked to start working on "Plan B," which would cost a lot in capital to retrofit our operation. Then I saw the key.

Each tool that had a broken cutter, when opened up, had several small retracting springs which had toppled in the deceleration. The centrifugal force caused the springs to fall over on their side, laying down and providing no force to retract the cutter.

A big shock-absorber spring, that's what we needed! Once we figured out how to place strong enough spring coaxial with the center line, the decelerating forces were overcome by better engineering. The funny thing was, it took a tremendous effort to convince the inventor of the technology to change it... even though the initial design was failing.

My take-away: be open to new ways of looking at things, especially if we invented something and the old way isn't working. When we invent something we are proud of, great! When improvements to that invention come along, better! Often new ideas come from the most unlikely sources, so have eyes and ears open, and minds prepared to accept the possibility of something better.

Please let me know about a time you saw an inventor learn how to improve their invention from an unlikely source...

For more information on the "imperiled start up": http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/069903.html