Engineering Decisions, Events, Tips & Techniques 
No Comments Test of Time
While thumbing through the GM Die Standards last night, two things were lost upon me until that moment.
One is that I am the last surviving industry active person to have written a die standards book for an OEM. From scratch. I guess that is kind of like being the oldest person alive in a morbid way.
The second is the organization of the book is still relevant today. The organization and technical numbering system were my invention alone. What hit me was it will be 19 years strong in a few weeks. This is the longest running die standards organization format in the history of GM.
The book prior to mine was in existence for about 8 years. The book prior to that also had a completely different numbering system and content organization. That book lasted for about 5 years. The one before that was in circulation for around 15 years or so.
The key is to create something that is specific enough to be useful yet general enough to be flexible as times change. If you can combine those two characteristics, then it will stand the test of time.
