Despite sunny rhetoric claiming phantom gains, the building was misconceived and delayed. Industry observer: "a hard-won lesson in tolerance accumulation."
I deal with stacking tolerances on occasion in manufacturing. The more things that have to precisely fit into each other, the more “interesting” life gets. Or, you do it like one factory I visited where everything was hand-drilled on the assembly line and no two appliances ever left the plant quite alike.
Long ago when I was a machinist the machine I operated, being over 80 years old, had a lot of play in the gear train from wear. However if I took the moment to hand crank the machine forward, taking up the slack, before starting I could achieve a precision cut in the steel to within .003” tolerance. But if I did not do that the machine was not worth a damn.
Great insights, thank you.
I deal with stacking tolerances on occasion in manufacturing. The more things that have to precisely fit into each other, the more “interesting” life gets. Or, you do it like one factory I visited where everything was hand-drilled on the assembly line and no two appliances ever left the plant quite alike.
Thank you for revisiting this Norman and I hope you are well.
Thanks, Lloyd. I'd gotten a semi-related inquiry, and also seen that LinkedIn post, so I wanted to have something updated.
And thanks for your work editing the piece--plus the generous intro that I didn't feel was appropriate to reproduce!
Long ago when I was a machinist the machine I operated, being over 80 years old, had a lot of play in the gear train from wear. However if I took the moment to hand crank the machine forward, taking up the slack, before starting I could achieve a precision cut in the steel to within .003” tolerance. But if I did not do that the machine was not worth a damn.
Damn fine reporting!!