What's new
By:
Filters

Being Cheap Vs. Being Inconvenienced? ( Guess This Is Too Much For Garage Journal Too)

Pukemaggots said:
What is this Jimbo


5pd5Z1l.jpg
Click to expand...
Come on superman, tell us what it is.
 
jimmy123456789 said:
I can’t remember who posted it on here, but someone said “I’ll bet Jimmy Numbers lives rent free in half the users heads”. Posts like this make it clear that it’s true. :flipoff2: But I don't get the narcissist quip either. Sounds like a cop out to dismiss someone without proving them wrong. Aka biggest bitch move in the world :flipoff2:
Click to expand...
Who posted that remark-
 
Pukemaggots said:
Keeps calling himself super mechanic
Starts thread about transmission jack
Doesn't know what a sprag clutch is


67df4830-6369-4fe1-940d-bb2c7f0969e2-jpeg.jpg
Click to expand...

When have I ever said I’m the best mechanic or know everything???

The most stubborn, biggest asshole mechanic maybe… :flipoff2:
 
jimmy123456789 said:
Gonna need a time machine for that to happen. Gotta go back to 2017 when I still worked at that shop. Tranny jack was just an example to talk about the broader topic.
Click to expand...
So you held on to that for 4 years to make a post here.

What a bitch
 
jimmy123456789 said:
What I’m asking is where do you guys draw the line between trying to cheap out and save money by using something that’s half broken/inconvenient to use and when will you pony up and say “screw this POS” and buy one that works as it’s supposed to?

IME the ones who want you to use half broken/crappy stuff are bosses and managers who aren’t directly inconvenienced by it themselves. Long as the work gets done they don’t care. IMO you waste more time dealing with broken junk trying to make it work right (by wasting time you also lose money) than it would cost to replace with one that works right. But some folks seem to have the goal of “spend as little as possible no matter the problems it causes”.

For example, having a tranny jack that pours oil out and requires filling each time it’s used wastes more time and money than buying a new one, not only the money in the oil but also the time filling it each time and cleaning up the oil trail it leaves in its wake.


So what do you fuckers think? Apparently this is too controversial for garage journal so fuck them!
Click to expand...

It's not controversial, it's just really a topic so basic it's not worthy of drawn-out discussion.

If a tool is fucked up and leaking/has to be refilled that's time spent cleaning and fixing stuff that's supposed to be making money.

It's a no-brainer. You're losing money. Fix or replace.

"Hey, I'm throwing this fucking broken jack in the dumpster. You should probably order a new one."

When you say something like that it'll get the boss' attention.


Along the same lines of wasted time and money...

I went to a shop to help them yesterday. (Buddy that I posted about with the car crash is STILL in the hospital so they're down a guy)

Got there at 7:45 place opens at 8. The first car to come in was a simple amp/sub install in a Charger. Customer dropped it off and sat to wait for the install.

Tried to pull the car into the bay but there were tools, Harley parts on the floor, and trash all over the place. The work table had shit scattered all over it just like the floor. No workable area.

Harley parts were scratched. :shaking: Fucking bike still has temporary plates on it. New bike. Rear fender and left saddle bag are scratched and parts were laying on the ground to be walked around/tripped over.

So I ended up spending an hour and a half cleaning the fucking place and getting the Harley parts in a safe spot so the bay could actually be worked in. All the trash this guy left all over the place? It went in his toolbox. I've been on the dude about trashing the place and he has yet to listen. I stopped short of sweeping his mess off the floor and dumping it in the drawers. :homer:

So I spent an hour and a half cleaning a single car bay while the customer waited. It was that bad.

The guy that made the place a fucking mess? Showed up around 9:45. Talking about "Man, there was ice this morning"

We're in Augusta, GA. It got down to 30 overnight. There was frost on the grass and cars outside. Nothing to make you over an hour and a half late. Late at all for that matter.

So I get started on the amp/sub install and have to search for everything I need to do the install. More time wasted.

Before the guy that wrecked the bay left for the day he was going to pull in a car that's still there waiting for stuff to come back from upholstery. Over the course of the day he had made a mess of the entire fucking bay. Again.

So I'm checking out/inspecting the bay at the end of the day and he tried to pull this car in. Told him to shut it off and come into the bay. Made him clean the bay so it's ready to work in Monday morning. He actually got pissed off about having to clean. :laughing:

At the end of the day I had a discussion with the owner that all of the the shit I dealt with is costing him money. The cleaner the shop is, the more efficient it is. The more efficient it is, the more money you'll make. Owner wants me there to basically "transform" the shop so he's listening. Getting lots of new product lines in and getting him set up to make the whole place more efficient.

And if Mr Bay Fucker-Upper doesn't start showing up on time he's going to be finding a new job.
 
jimmy123456789 said:
Gonna need a time machine for that to happen. Gotta go back to 2017 when I still worked at that shop. Tranny jack was just an example to talk about the broader topic.
Click to expand...
Yeah? And? If its broke, fucking fix it. Diagnose, give a parts list to the bossman to procure said bits 'n pieces and fix it. As somebody who repairs things, repairing the shit you use should be something you do. Last time something got to that point at work, I looked at it, figured out what was bad, stopped the next time I was out on service calls and bought the parts I needed (not out of pocket) and repaired it. End of story.
 
ProjectTwin said:
It's not controversial, it's just really a topic so basic it's not worthy of drawn-out discussion.

If a tool is fucked up and leaking/has to be refilled that's time spent cleaning and fixing stuff that's supposed to be making money.

It's a no-brainer. You're losing money. Fix or replace.

"Hey, I'm throwing this fucking broken jack in the dumpster. You should probably order a new one."

When you say something like that it'll get the boss' attention.


Along the same lines of wasted time and money...

I went to a shop to help them yesterday. (Buddy that I posted about with the car crash is STILL in the hospital so they're down a guy)

Got there at 7:45 place opens at 8. The first car to come in was a simple amp/sub install in a Charger. Customer dropped it off and sat to wait for the install.

Tried to pull the car into the bay but there were tools, Harley parts on the floor, and trash all over the place. The work table had shit scattered all over it just like the floor. No workable area.

Harley parts were scratched. :shaking: Fucking bike still has temporary plates on it. New bike. Rear fender and left saddle bag are scratched and parts were laying on the ground to be walked around/tripped over.

So I ended up spending an hour and a half cleaning the fucking place and getting the Harley parts in a safe spot so the bay could actually be worked in. All the trash this guy left all over the place? It went in his toolbox. I've been on the dude about trashing the place and he has yet to listen. I stopped short of sweeping his mess off the floor and dumping it in the drawers. :homer:

So I spent an hour and a half cleaning a single car bay while the customer waited. It was that bad.

The guy that made the place a fucking mess? Showed up around 9:45. Talking about "Man, there was ice this morning"

We're in Augusta, GA. It got down to 30 overnight. There was frost on the grass and cars outside. Nothing to make you over an hour and a half late. Late at all for that matter.

So I get started on the amp/sub install and have to search for everything I need to do the install. More time wasted.

Before the guy that wrecked the bay left for the day he was going to pull in a car that's still there waiting for stuff to come back from upholstery. Over the course of the day he had made a mess of the entire fucking bay. Again.

So I'm checking out/inspecting the bay at the end of the day and he tried to pull this car in. Told him to shut it off and come into the bay. Made him clean the bay so it's ready to work in Monday morning. He actually got pissed off about having to clean. :laughing:

At the end of the day I had a discussion with the owner that all of the the shit I dealt with is costing him money. The cleaner the shop is, the more efficient it is. The more efficient it is, the more money you'll make. Owner wants me there to basically "transform" the shop so he's listening. Getting lots of new product lines in and getting him set up to make the whole place more efficient.

And if Mr Bay Fucker-Upper doesn't start showing up on time he's going to be finding a new job.
Click to expand...
This is unacceptable, Do Not let this slow your progress on the next project!
 
Your not going to fix it so start looking for a new job. I worked for a huge company that it was fight for them to fix even basic shit. I tried for 4 years and even got into management to try to change things but it didn't matter. So I quit and went to work for a competitor where I was bored out of my mind because they did things right so the only thing I had to do was my actual job.

Now I work for a small company and it's my job to make sure that kind of thing isn't an excuse, hell I'm working on buying a plasma table for guys who can barely use a computer so that cutting parts is no longer an excuse
 
Firstram said:
This is unacceptable, Do Not let this slow your progress on the next project!
Click to expand...

It's not. Told the guy I have stuff at home that I need to work on and can't be there every day.

Splib said:
Are you going to start a new reality show ? Tard Shop Savior ??
Click to expand...

You know, the van owner was the one that pushed me to start a YouTube channel and a Facebook page for the stuff I build/do. I was against it because of the time involved in shooting/editing.

I started taking suggestions on what to call it.

The suggestions were all about the same...

"Fixing other people's mistakes"
"How do do it right"
"The Unfuckening" :lmao:

So I went with Batdog Garage because of our GSD. :homer:
 
A_G said:
stepping over dollars to save pennies can also apply here
Click to expand...
At some point, I agree. Not now, one pump to get it back to the top every few minutes is not affecting productivity in my case. Hell that jack shouldn't be under the car more than a few minutes anyhow. Get that shit out and move on. Or vice versa.
 
xr-nut said:
Biz101, mind the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.
Click to expand...
Right now I am my tech which means it is annoying me plus if i get called away to collect some money or take a call it will drop a bunch. Also, my shop is messy enough without stuff leaking.


Plus if you dont keep on top of equipment maintanence at some point you look around and half your stuff needs work. I dont like that.
 
DMG said:
Right now I am my tech which means it is annoying me plus if i get called away to collect some money or take a call it will drop a bunch. Also, my shop is messy enough without stuff leaking.


Plus if you dont keep on top of equipment maintanence at some point you look around and half your stuff needs work. I dont like that.
Click to expand...
Good points
 
  • Like
Reactions: DMG
You call yourself a mechanic. Fix the fucking jack. I tried lifting a 13 speed road ranger into a truck and it was pissing out fluid. 5 minutes and the oring bin and I got it stabbed in
 
Slightly different perspective that I learned quoting retrofit jobs for steel mills.

There are (at least) two budgets, MRO and capital. MRO tends to be a fixed thing you can plan for, both in dollars and downtime, and work around it as needed.

Capital is a big expenditure that needs to be justified with a return in a reasonable period, and most places only have so much capital to allot for a given year.

On a rollout table from the sizing mill to the coiler you'd maybe have 200 motors and gearboxes driving the rollers. They're old and obsolete, but you've got a guy that can rebuild them at $20k/pop that you need to use a few times per month, and you've always got at least one spare on the shelf, so your downtime is minimal. The millwrights all know how to change them quickly and get back online.

I quote a retrofit job to replace all the motors and gearboxes to more modern, reliable stuff. Return on investment and TCO probably balances out at the 5-6 year mark, but in the meanwhile, the line will be down for much longer while the new hardware is installed and figured out, yes after that period there will be less downtime, but an hour or two per month is more easily absorbed than a few weeks at once. And it's already expected.

Meanwhile some other project at the mill is requesting the same amount of capital with a much less intrusive downtime and a quicker return. Guess who gets the capital? Especially when you're dealing with someone who maybe only has 5-6 years left before retiring and doesn't want to rock the boat with a big project he won't see return on.

Flip side, is maybe you get in with the maintenance manager, and work with him to develop something you can deploy incrementally and sneak it in under the MRO budget instead of capital. Get him to buy your $10k solution that requires a little bit of retrofit but doesn't have to happen all at once. But it will still take a year+ for your solution to prove itself, now there are two things that need to be on the spares shelf instead of one, and that rollout table is just one part of the hot mill he's gotta worry about. Still not the easiest sell.

Point being, sometimes the problem that is big in your universe is really small in the scheme of things, and what seems 'obvious' to you at ground level may not be at a macro view.
 
I'll add to the above by saying even in my time in that industry, there was a change from integrators asking for a 2.0+ service factor on some applications (which we'd sell as having a superior lifespan), to asking for a 1.0 just to get it out of their warranty period. Cheapest bidder, basically. Reduce that capital impact and transfer it to MRO as quickly as possible.

Makes me a bit sad, as we sold what I still think was the best built product for that industry if you wanted TCO as part of your cost calculation. But in the bigger picture it can't always be.
 
vetteboy79 said:
I'll add to the above by saying even in my time in that industry, there was a change from integrators asking for a 2.0+ service factor on some applications (which we'd sell as having a superior lifespan), to asking for a 1.0 just to get it out of their warranty period. Cheapest bidder, basically. Reduce that capital impact and transfer it to MRO as quickly as possible.

Makes me a bit sad, as we sold what I still think was the best built product for that industry if you wanted TCO as part of your cost calculation. But in the bigger picture it can't always be.
Click to expand...
Company I used to work for decided that instead of building the best product with a good profit margin they’d rather be #1 in market share with less of a profit margin by continually “making the product more competitive” (read: cheaper and less reliable). Captured #1 in sales, but never saw profit margins at the same level. Went from a debt-free company to needing a 100 million dollar loan to stay afloat a couple of years ago (pre-‘rona). I said for years that Cadillac, Lexus, and Audi make more money per unit than Chevrolet, Toyota, and VW does. If you want to make a ‘cheaper product’ give it its own brand and make both. Don’t cheapen up your Cadillac brand (see: Cadillac Cimmaron).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh