Making Choices: Chapter 13
K Mart at one time was a major player in the retailing industry. The existing management patted itself on the back....and no one questioned or dared to question anything. If you were to retain your job, you followed the bull crap coming out of management like a bunch of lemmings. Folks these guys were being paid millions of dollars in compensation plus all the perks. Were they asleep at the switch? Had they been lulled into a false sense of security? Could they not see the hand writing on the wall? Next thing....the company went bankrupt. Heads rolled. And the finger pointing began....and so it goes....Nature's built-in extinction program.
An amoeba is a single celled organism. It can reproduce sexually or asexually. If you take a small beaker full of water and introduce one tiny little amoeba into this medium, pretty soon you have a whole colony. As the amoeba multiply they thrive and the numbers keep going up. This multiplication follows an expotential curve...2, 4, 8, 16, 32,....etc...till it's into the millions and then billions. Then suddenly...something strange happens...This colony hits a "critical mass". At this point in time the colony starts to die....Think K-Mart.....
Obviously , humans have a few more cells than the lowly amoeba. But if we follow Darwins theory...are we not direct descendants of these one celled creatures? Look around you. Have you not seen great chain stores go extinct? Paper mills..that were once giants in the American economy, no longer exist. The list goes on and on....
Once a company reaches this "critical mass", all innovations mysteriously stop happening. The company is top heavy. Management thinks it's invincible. The layer upon layer of management, rules, double-speak, lies and more lies, cooking of books, all spell its doom.
History Repeats Itself.
This act of self destruction doesn't only apply to companies or corporations, but extends to Nations as well. Look at the great civilizations of the past. Their ruins attest to their glory. Where are they to-day? Gone." Crown and septre must come down
and mingle with the dust". Even our sun, one day, will cease to exit.
What does all this have to do with buying a winder?
If you have been reading Dr. Winder's posts and you don't see the connection, then Iam afraid, the rest of the posts are not going to be much help to you. And to those folks who have followed these posts and are starting to see the picture..welcome. " Cast yea not pearls before swines".
Remember, a Winder is nothing more than a tool. The better the tool, the better the results. Yet, you can't discount this..." a bad workman always quarrels with his tools".
Your machine operator must have training. You cannot expect your average car driver to race at the Indy 500. Even if you give him the best car at the starting line.
Without proper training the operator picks up "bad habits". When a new employee is hired, he too picks up on these embedded practices. I have seen a whole bunch of "morons" running around operating machines. It amazes me that the company still makes money ,in spite of all these short comings. I never blame the operators. It is the owner or the plant manager's responsibility to make sure that proper training is imparted to the plant personnel.
OSHA standards dictate that a forklift operator must have proper certification and training. An electrician must be State certified. A plumber , truck driver etc...all must have certifications in their respective trades. Do any of your operators have any kind of certification? No? Did you train any of them? Who trained you? Why, you say, I ran this machine for 25 years!! I can make more rolls-per-shift on this machine than any one else in our plant. I can make a 1,000 rolls per shift! Now think of the master lathe operator...who can sharpen a drill bit in 15 minutes.
Just because you had your head buried in the sand for the last 25 years, doesn't mean the World stood still. A legally blind operator ( State run in Ohio...society for the blind) produces 30,000 rolls a day!!...And she is blind...man.. only 18 years old..How's that grab you?
Take your Blinders off.
