Monthly Archives: May 2016

Carts

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Carts carry much more than sledges

Carts carry much more than sledges


The wheel is always touted as a revolutionary invention. However the wheel without the cart is just a lawn ornament. Combining the wheel with a cart creates the advantage that makes it possible to transport additional material. The Indian travois is an example of a transport device that predates the wheel. As you can see from the comparison picture it only carries a fraction of the weight that a cart can handle.
When I began my career in automotive parts manufacturing, it was possible to accurately predict both the design of the manufactured part and the volume required five years into the future. It is not surprising that we created some plants where both the layout and the equipment were locked in place. My modular process equipment designs that could be moved with a lift truck were considered radical. This is not true today. In this era of mass customization the entire manufacturing floor is set up like roller derby. It is not just the “in process” material that is delivered on carts. Most of the equipment, racks and tables are also on carts.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Heavy equipment manufacturing floor

. The locations of these carts is regularly rearranged to match both the volume and the option mix of the customer orders. In this lean era we cannot afford any loss of time related to an inefficient or unbalanced assembly line. The other benefit was unplanned. It is very easy to achieve a through floor cleaning by pushing the equipment out of the way.
The use of carts has spread to the grocery store. Successful grocery stores have discovered that you can increase sales by rearranging the stock on a regular basis. They always seem to do it when you are in hurry. A quick trip turns into a scavenger hunt. Innovation is all about finding a new way to sort the stuff. Not only to they use carts to deliver the merchandise, but the shelves themselves are now on wheels.
In our fast changing world, you cannot get used to the locations of merchandise

In our fast changing world, you cannot get used to the locations of merchandise


Carts are affordable mobility on demand. Yes, it is possible to move the items that surround us with modern equipment like cranes. In most cases a crane is not available when you need one. Going back to the wheel and cart that began our engineering revolution, we can arrange our world around us. You never know a cart may save your life.
US Navy photograph showing EMT moving a person on a wheeled streacher

US Navy photograph showing EMT personnel moving a person on a wheeled streacher

Smile You’re on Camera

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Smile for the camera

Smile for the camera


It used to be that average people were photographed for special occasions like weddings. Elaborate staging and costuming accompanied the event. This was related to the high relative cost of film and processing. We gathered the precious photos in scrapbooks which were kept in our libraries.
This all changed with the advent of digital photography. In the beginning it was not much different. The floppy disc storage media could only hold a dozen or so pictures. Not much different than a film camera expect that the result was fuzzy. However, Moore’s law marches on and we all have thousands of pictures stored in personal digital media. Most everyone has a smart phone that takes selfies.
1984 has arrived. Big Brother is watching. Smile.
Security cameras are a feature of most buildings an parking lots

Security cameras are a feature of most buildings an parking lots


Actually it did not turn out to be the government that was watching. Most of us want the security that come from monitoring. A friend of ours recovered her stolen purse using the security camera footage of the thief in the process of using her stolen credit card. This was within a hour of the theft. Most of us no longer notice the cameras.
I have also heard funny stories about attempts to hide activity by placing cups over the visible camera enclosures. Security camera technology has advanced rapidly. The large enclosures that you see are no longer needed. A plant that I know of was plagued by early shutdowns by a saboteur who liked to quit early on Fridays. Covering the big security cameras enclosures with coffee cups did not block the view of the actual cameras that were hidden up in the rafters. The dismissed temporary employee quit objecting when he was shown the pictures of him literally throwing a monkey wrench into the works.
It is easy to focus on the occasional negative example. On the positive front, a Go Pro video camera has evolved into a powerful training tool. In this era of rapid change we are constantly in a learning mode. Watching a Go Pro video made by the first person to become proficient at a task, speeds the transfer of the knowledge to the rest of the team. This is particularly effective because watching others perform a task is one of the most effective training methods. The ability to use the same video to establish industrial engineering standards without the invasive timing stopwatch is a secondary benefit.
Everyone is now able to be the photographer. The camera in our cell phone create better pictures than the Instamatic cameras of old. We are just beginning to create the apps that will unlock the usefulness of the camera in the smart phone.
Most smart phones have sophisticated cameras

Most smart phones have sophisticated cameras

24 Hour Cities

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24 hour cites like New York never sleep

24 hour cites like New York never sleep


It was not too many years ago that pretty much only the North American auto plants and a skeleton crew at the hospital worked the graveyard shift. As an engineer in a three shift auto plant you would expect to end working the graveyard shift on a regular basis. You do not expect to run into rush hour traffic on your way into work at that time. The first time I ran into Toronto traffic on the way to work on the graveyard shift, I dismissed it as an accident. When you consistently run into rush hour traffic after midnight you realize that the city has become a 24 hour city.
In the current economy the largest cites are where the new employment is being generated. Cities like New York, Hong Kong, Beijing, New Delhi, Jakarta, Tokyo are all 24 hour cities. As the worker becomes a smaller part of the business cost, the shift premium that you need to pay to get workers on shifts other than day shift is insignificant compared to the increased utilization of the capital invested in automation. Even in engineering the advent of high annual cost CAD seats has converted a day shift occupation into a multi-shift occupation.
This is not a new phenomenon. New York City, when it was the transit point for immigrants arriving in America, became a 24 hour city. It was not uncommon in the tenements for night shift workers to share a bed with day shift workers.
24 hour cities have a very high population density. This NYC tenement picture is from the 1800's

24 hour cities have a very high population density. This NYC tenement picture is from the 1800’s

Severe shortages of housing units in Asian cities like Beijing, have generated an echo of the tenements that we saw in New York City. I hope that our race to bottom wage levels does not bring that type of thing back here. It always comes back with a twist. I was reading about a successful entrepreneur who was renting camper vans to Silicon Valley residents who ended up living in their employers parking lots.
Explosive growth comes with its own problems. Ever increasing numbers of goods must be transported into 24 hour cities. The traffic snarl causes trucks to be outlawed during daylight hours. Everyone who is a truck driver is pushed onto the grave
yard shift. Even this drastic step may not be enough. We hear stories of week long traffic jams on the routes into Beijing. Yes increasing the number of TEU (transport equivalent units) that a container ship may carry to over 10,000, is necessary to deliver enough goods to support a city like New York. I can imagine 10,000 trucks backed up all the way to Pennsylvania the day that one of the cranes in the Port of New York craps out.
The capacity of a road drops quickly during a traffic jam

The capacity of a road drops quickly during a traffic jam