From: Dehede011@aol.com
Date: Sat Nov 30 2002 - 09:23:29 MST
In a message dated 11/30/2002 9:37:08 AM Central Standard Time,
neptune@mars.superlink.net writes: If what you say is so -- and, in my
experience, you always find incompetent people at the top and lots of room
for process improvement (I work in IT) -- then you can make a nice chunk of
change either starting your own business and doing things right or by
offering up your cost cutting services to others already in business. Well,
have you?
Dan,
Yes, I did very well until my later years. Part of my situation is
that due to a whopping serendipity I ended up in a perfect position to learn
more that almost anyone ever does. All of which comes down to saying I
wasn't that sharp until late in my career. <G>
But, if you look at the history of manufacturing you will find that
every so often a kid comes along that was a high school dropout. In every
case I know of he had an audacious personality. That young fellow becomes
fascinated with manufacturing. Between his own discoverys and studying the
state of the art where ever he can find knowledge he gets to be better than
all but a few. This is due to lack of competition, as much as anything, as
most folks aren't that interested. In 48 years I met one or two kindred
spirits and learned a lot from them.
Then the young fellow retires or something and that is it until the
next one comes along.
Let me tell you about a fellow named A. B. Seagur. He was considered
a genius by that group of manufacturing experts that arose around the First
World War. Someone enlisted him to help devise ways to teach WWI wounded to
compensate for their condition. That work won him a reputation as a genius.
In general, the man did not publish. But, in one old manufacturing
handbook he did write an article. I found the article as a result of getting
to do a walk through of two factories with him -- sorry three factories. I
was busy learning all I could from the man. The man was so far ahead of the
rest of us that frankly we didn't know what he was talking about. I wouldn't
give up and I worked on the material available detailing his work until I
understood. I have never seen anyone that operated at his level.
My involvement with Mr. Segur was in the late 60s and early 70s.
Sometime in the early to mid 80s Mr. Segur died and someone I knew bought his
private papers. Those papers disappeared into a private library seemingly to
prevent others from seeing them. They will probably never reappear.
Dan in my experience that is a typical manufacturing experts impact on
that profession.
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