[TowerTalk] Tashjian Tower Orders

[jimlux]

Bob Maser wrote:
> If Steppir, FlexRadio and Elecraft had shorter leadtimes when they 
> introduced their products they would have sold more equipment. Having to 
> wait for 6 months or more is a turn-off for most.  As I recall, Elecraft 
> also allowed you to cut in front of others by allowing them to use your 
> money while you were waiting.
> 
> Most, if not all of these companies are run by engineers and engineers have 
> no concept of practices like Just In Time(JIT)manufacturing, line flow 
> balancing, queue elimination, and vendor relationships.  They also never 
> stop designing the product and this causes delays and increases costs 
> because of material that has to be scrapped.  When I worked at Xerox in the 
> 70's they went to a block cut-in mode when making changes.  Any improvement 
> to the design was shelved until the next cut-in block and it took an act of 
> congress to violate this rule.  It is usually easy to spot a company that is 
> run by engineers.  There is unfinished product lying all over the place 
> waiting for parts to arrive from vendors.  Work in Process investment is 
> usually ignored until someone points out that costs of manufacturing have 
> gone through the roof.
> 
> Excuse my ramblings,
>

On the other hand, it requires capital to stock and staff up to 
accomodate the initial ramp up.  Small company development strategies 
are often "bootstrapped" on the personal investment of the founder 
(engineers and craftsmen, as you say).  Those folks often don't even 
know HOW to go about getting capital, much less actually doing it. When 
I used to run my small software development company, our customers were 
almost all small firms.. the owner and a couple others, maybe with half 
a dozen manufacturing people back in the shop and a secretary, 
receptionist, jackofalladministration out front.  It's the classic 
garage operation as a business.

And as you note, lots of them stay that way, because it's impossible to 
scale doing everything with cash and net30.  Relatively few grow beyond 
this size successfully.. it takes desire on the part of the owner AND 
access to capital, etc.  To be honest, a lot of the owners don't want to 
grow.  Say you're a skilled machinist and you run your own little CNC 
shop with a couple machines and a couple assistants.  You can turn a 
million a year or so, make a reasonably comfortable living, all without 
needing huge capital. Maybe the machine tool gave you the financing on 
the tools, maybe you took out a mortgage on your house. You do it for 
20-30 years, then sell up and retire.

There was a recent blog post by Wayne Hale talking about the 
infeasibility of getting the space shuttle going again, and it's just 
because of this kind of thing.  There's dozens (if not hundreds) of 
little shops making some specialized part for the shuttle.  That's all 
they did, for all practical purposes. When the shuttle buys went away, 
the owners said: hey, I've been doing this since the 80s, it's time to 
retire.  They were happy to do what they did, do it well, and be a part 
of the space program, but they're not interested in doing it forever.

Jim, W6RMK