When Seconds Count…

Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 08:09 Written by Albert Greenhut Tuesday, 11 March 2014 04:26

Seconds matter in sports. This was on display during the Olympic men’s downhill ski race. Bode Miller, the American favorite, was on a quest to finally win this race in an Olympics. He did not, and the winner, Matthias Mayer won with a time of 2:06.23, about half a second faster than Miller, in fact the top twelve finishers were within one second of the winner and all 47 competitors were within 10 seconds of each other, here are details and results.

Another sport that catches my eye is F1 racing. These cars are built for speed (averaging about 185 mph over tracks with winding turns). This sport also puts a premium on time. I am used to seeing NARCAR pit crews working at around 14 seconds but the Formula 1 cars are only about 2 seconds long because they do not refuel, they just change tires. This video shows the fruits of their practice, labor, and choreography. All of these show that the little things, hitting a gate or a bump in skiing or taking an extra second while changing a tire can mean the difference between winning and losing.

In manufacturing Time Matters. Time Matters when paying for the labor or running machines. Time Matters when your customer is waiting for their products. And when Time Matters Intercept Technology can save you money.

We worked with an aerospace manufacturer that had a complicated packaging procedure that took about 25 minutes per unit, a geroter. The procedure had 5 steps, required 4 materials, and air handling equipment (for vacuum sealing). We worked with them to develop a new process using a zipper bag made from Corrosion Intercept. Instead of 5 steps we created a procedure that had only one, because the Intercept Technology does not depend on oil or grease coatings, foil bagging, or vacuum sealing. In process time alone these bags created a huge savings for the customer, but the best news is that over 10 years later there have been zero part rejections. This change not only saved them time and money, but also eliminated oils/greases from their manufacturing making their process safer and greener (click here for a detailed case study).

We believe there are always opportunities for saving time and money in every operation and we invite the challenge to see how we can use our technological insights to serve you. Even the two seconds that a F1 pit stop crew is constantly looking to be improved upon.