Hello Denny, it's really good to hear from you, I believe it has been a while. Thanks for taking the time to add some great comments. I thoroughly agree with all of the points that you have brought up in your post, I believe the key to success in many instances is taking a step back and looking at the task at hand and then formulating a plan and presenting that plan to those who it will directly affect. All too often a single person or a chosen few will be the only ones with any input to how projects can or will be approached and the individuals charged with making it happen are left with many frustrations as a result.
     Some of the most progressive companies that I have been associated with over my career were the ones who made it a point to include some sort of upgrade to their facilities with each and every project they took on. That may have meant something as simple as a small hand tool to something as extensive as a facilities expansion for more production footage. Most of these companies also took the time to meet with floor supervisors, lead men, and finally the folks on the production floor to discuss the nuts and bolts of accomplishing work. Morale has a tremendous influence on how companies attain continued success, the companies that I mentioned above were held in very high regard by their employees due mainly to their willingness to include everyone as they went about the business of putting out a quality product, on time and giving ownership to those who produced it.
     I'm sure that many of you have seen instances of reluctance to embrace technology. To me this is also an area that should be given due consideration by everyone, especially in our times of global competition. It is really hard to justify the cost of certain pieces of equipment when initially deciding whether to make the leap or not. To me it is even worse if folks don't at least consider some of these items or systems and take the time to consider every avenue; will this tool increase production? will it have a life beyond the job it was purchased for and offer other opportunities in the future? can it replace or supplement other pieces of equipment that are currently in use? will it allow a more skilled member of the team to concentrate on other tasks by allowing less skilled members to operate it? can it be costed into a current job and then essentially become a free asset for future work? does it replace a current piece of equipment and require less expensive consumables or other associated parts than those currently in use? There are countless other questions that could be asked similar to those that I have already listed and should be asked by anyone who is responsible for growth associated with a business. A fairly decent example of technology, efficiency, and choice would have to do with making holes in parts, when fabricating, there are quite a few choices for putting holes in items; you can have them burned out while the pieces are being cut with lasers, plasmas, conventional oxy-fuel cutting systems, water jets, and possibly others that I have forgotten, each of these has their benefits and drawbacks, yet all of them can and should be considered. For some holes it makes sense to use conventional drilling machines; radial arm drills, magnetic base drills, floor-standing drill presses, gang-drills, and any other type of machine that can use a twist drill. In some cases even these machines can be used with alternative type drilling bits such as spade bits and annular cutters to increase cutting speeds and possibly hole finishes or quality. Yet another choice for making holes in parts is through the use of punch presses/ironworkers, these machines can be of the fairly large floor model types capable of punching some fairly large holes in rather thick materials down to hand-held portable punching models that can be brought to the work and readily operated without the use of anything other than an individual who can line it up with a punchmark on the part. There are also a number of different C-jaw type units designed to be hung from a crane hook and brought to the work and powered by a portable hydraulic unit, some of these units also have substantial hole capacities and thickness possibilities. Consideration of uses for these various technologies should be a part of almost any companies foresight and planning process as they work to become better, more efficient, and more profitable.
     As I somewhat eluded to above, even small rather insignificant items really can make a big difference in a companies bottom line when they are considering time, quality, and the bottom line of the money making capabilities that they possess. You will often hear of the term, "status quo", most realize that this isn't the way to stay ahead in todays economy.
     A portion of my initial reason for starting this thread to begin with had to do with taking on work in the repair arena. As readily available as some of the technology is to make repairs to most any item that is in existence today, it isn't always in the best interest of the ones considering making these repairs or the ones comtemplating having them done. My comments can follow a number of trains of thought; when you are given the opportunity to make a repair on an item I believe you have to be very conscious of any liabilities that may be associated with it. Todays sue-happy society has forced most of us to look at many things differently than our parents had to, this comment can describe any number of things depending upon the item or repair and the types of results from a failure of it. Make-up of item to be repaired; in some instances the filler metals or some of the process requirements of facilitating repairs of these materials may almost instantly prevent economical feasibility of their use, filler metal purchase minimums come to mind, you may have to purchase 5 to 10 pounds of a particular type of rod @ say $75.00/lb when you only need a few sticks to accomplish the repair and possibly never use the rod for anything again.
      When a company produces thousands of a particular part they can possibly warrant special conditions and processes that aren't economically justifiable to others, such as the small-time repair welder. In this case you might just end up throwing a lot of money after something that is out of ones realm of capabilities and causing headaches for yourself and the individual you are trying to serve. End result, no one is happy and you or your customer is possibly out a bunch of money. Material identification and special considerations for the repairs of various specialty metals or alloys. It is inherently difficult to identify many materials by simply viewing them. Without knowing the specific make-up of many of the materials used to fabricate many of the things that are used in our society you run the risk of mis-identification which generally results in repair failures or permanent destruction of parts and once again a considerable monetary outlay. To sum up for now, I would say that for many of us, especially myself, I will attempt repairs on my own things much more readily than I ever would for anyone else and for a number of the repairs that I attempt for others, I do so with the stipulation that they know up front the cost or possibly the lack of a guarantee, or much of the time I don't charge for my attempt at a repair because I feel that I cannot give any guarantee. Best regards, Allan