RE: Complete RP certification (For those of you with customers)

From: Blasch, Larry (LBlasch@OPW-FC.com)
Date: Tue Feb 25 2003 - 16:09:50 EET


David and list,

I've been told before that I was my own worst enemy. You see I have this
illogical desire to keep promises that others make. Even if they are
impractical.

Every time we as an industry deliver the impossible we raise everyone's
expectations because obviously it can be done. The standard is raised to an
even higher level.

If we could deliver RP parts by e-mail within minutes, it still wouldn't be
fast enough.

If your customer demands instant results, that customer must be made to
understand that there is a proportional cost associated with meeting the
desired goal. Offering a discount on a rush (I must have it for an 8:00am
meeting tomorrow) job is ludicrous.

This is a tough economy, and the competition is fierce. Just remember, more
companies die from failing to deliver impossible promises, than from
offering too little.

DON'T promise the impossible! I get requests to do that all the time. I use
to come in at all hours, weekends, holidays... to get the jobs done and it
still wasn't enough.

I finally did a survey to find out what my customers wanted and what they
actually used the parts for. Naturally everyone wanted parts immediately.
They also indicated that the usefull life of an RP part was approximately 20
seconds, that was the time that it took for the customer to look at the part
and say !@#$ I missed something! Don't start up the machine, I need to fix
the model and you need to run it again.

That's when I changed my quotation process to include a sliding scale of
costs inversely proportional to the lead time required. I lost jobs at first
and there was a whole lot of complaining, but now I have so many requests
that I have to turn work away. (Don't be afraid to turn down work, no one
can do everything.) I get more sleep now and my lab is much easier to
schedule. Let someone else go out of business trying to deliver the
impossible.

Don't be your own worst enemy,

Larry Blasch
Design Engineer
CAE Systems Administrator
     
OPW Fueling Components
P.O. Box 405003
Cincinnati, OH 45240-5003 USA
Voice: (513) 870-3356
Fax: (513) 870-3338

-----Original Message-----
From: David K. Leigh [mailto:dkleigh@harvest-tech.com]
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 5:10 PM
To: rp-ml@rapid.lpt.fi
Subject: RE: Complete RP certification (For those of you with customers)

Ok, sorry, but I had to weigh in.

RP Expert: I saw this special on the History channel the other night. Man,
that stuff is cool. Kinda like Star Trek. Can u guys really make chocolate
sundae's in those machines?

RP Master: I am an engineer at company XYZ and need some parts made in your
RP process. Attached are the files and I need them for a meeting at 8:00 am
tomorrow. I realize it's after lunch, but we had a meeting this morning.
<Next Day> Man, we got those ^@$#!! parts this morning. They were
CRAP!!!!! You guys are unbelievable. OK, so you matched our other quote of
$5.00 and shipped it free, but the quality is AWEFUL! Can't you guys hold a
tolerance of +/- 20 microns supply us with our required mold tech finish?
The specifications were clearly marked on the prints I FedExed to you today.
You guys SUCK!!!! I just hope I don't get fired because of your
incompetance.

RP Novice: Has been in the industry 10+ years, helped debug half of the RP
technologies on the market, holds at least 1 RP patent, owns every RP
product and software available and is still tryin' to figure out how to
repair a $^#@^ .STL file.

********************************************************************
David K. Leigh (254) 933-1000
Harvest Technologies, Inc. fax (254) 298-0125
Rapid Prototyping Services www.harvest-tech.com



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