Bon Voyage, With Fond MHz

  Last month, the city where I live – Palm Springs, Calif. – sponsored an electronics recycling day. It’s a twice-a-year call to corral all those orphans of technology; the haul of 75-lbs. laser printers, monochrome monitors and computers of the pre-Windows 95 era usually fills a couple of semi-trailers.
  Among the silicon-wafer waifs this time was my Compaq Presario 7970, bought as a dream machine in 1999 and sent out to a storage closet in 2003. It sat for nearly a year-and-a-half before I pulled it out to take one more look and maybe give the machine another reprieve.
  In less than 10 minutes, I managed to hit that Windows 98 blue-screen-of-death that kept popping up and driving me crazy. After a reboot, I tried several tasks that the old Presario completed without a hitch – albeit much slower than its replacement in the ofice. I then went to the DVD cabinet; in a few minutes, the Old Beige Box played Anatomy of a Murder flawlessly, with Jimmy Stewart stuttering no more than normal.
  At this time, my spouse came into the room and eyed me and the Presario very carefully. At one time, we’d owned three different Compaq computers, and she finally stated that if she and I continued to suffer with constant machine freezes and lost files, she’d file for divorce.
  We are now a Gateway family. Problems of the electronic and emotional genre decreased dramatically. Life is good.
  And, after a final search for any files that escaped the first transfer to my current computer, the Presario 7970 went dark and into the back of the station wagon for the final journey to the recyclers. It’s an ignominious end to a fine bit of technology.
  And, as you struggle through this sad tale of a man and his machine, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with running a stone business.  Plenty, actually.
  In December, some of you are contemplating that last bit of equipment buying to deduct as 2004 expenses. Others are planning capital needs for 2005 and budgeting accordingly. In either case, there comes a time to review needs and take a look at current tools and machines.
  That list of what’s around the shop usually includes the machine that went from being used everyday to now-and-then to…. hey, when was the last time we used this? Or, the hand tool that’s on its third rebuild and needs another major refurb. Or, that piece of equipment that becomes the booby prize that employees avoid because it’s too old – or just a piece of junk.
  It’s a time when you need to be honest and remember that you’re evaluating tools, and not the value of your decisions. Even something as inanimate as an angle grinder can take a life of its own if you personally invest too much.
  I often tell the story of my first personal computer – an Osborne Executive that was obsolete when I bought it in 1986. In its “portable” mode, it looked like a 1950s Japanese sewing machine and weighed about as much; with a 5” screen, two disk drives and a 4 MHz processor, it was ugly and slow. And yet I kept it as the years went by, mainly to show off to people who couldn’t believe computers once came without color.
  I became so attached to it that I couldn’t throw it out the door or sell it. I finally left it in a house I sold, so the new owners would make the final decision that I couldn’t bear to contemplate.
  It’s the kind of thinking that can slow down the business workflow. Getting a new piece of equipment – or changing the process entirely with something like a CNC – isn’t cheap, either, but is the current shop inventory costing you time and money? And could some of those tools go into installation toolboxes for light on-site work?
  Don’t limit this to machines, either. Diamond tooling, due to its price, might encourage you to keep consumables longer than you should, with employees creating workaround solutions to keep tools beyond a reasonable expiration date. If squeezing a bit more work out of a blade or wheel drives up your hourly labor, you’re not saving much – if anything at all.
  Remember the person using the tools as well. It’s one thing to do a sharp-pencil analysis based on cost, average tool life and hours used. Just be sure that the decision-making also includes discussions on the shop floor and in the field, because working with stone is anything but theoretical.
  Above all, recognize that there’s a time to just let things go, and not worry about the money you spent, or the bad decision you made, or if some cut-rate competitor will end up with your old equipment. I finally realized with that old Presario that I could fix it up with new software, memory and a cheap hard drive – but I could get a new computer with better features for less money and zero time investment.
  And so I threw the Presario into the recycling-company’s semi-trailer one bright Saturday morning, and felt some nostalgia at all the equipment in there that I recognized. Then I went home to work on something newer, faster and better that, someday soon, will be heading for the scrap pile.
  I still have mixed feelings about that, since I grew up in a time when things were made to last longer. Becoming too possessive, though, can be costly.
 
This article first appeared in the December 2004 print edition of Stone Business. ©2004 Western Business Media Inc.