All evidence to the contrary, I have started writing again. I teamed up with my pal Lou Kren to collaborate on an article for one of his ventures. I am my toughest critic – but I am very pleased with my work with Lou.

I also have no less than 5 book concepts in the works. At the rate I am going, it will take a couple years to get it all out there – but am close to getting the first one going. It will most likely be an engineering calculations-focused book.

I feel good overall – and I genuinely believe I am doing my best work ever.

That said, did you know that Vince Lombardi prepared his entire career to be a head coach? And no less than 20 years into his journey, he finally got the opportunity with the Green Bay Packers and helped put the NFL on the map. [my prediction is they will be in this year's Superbowl and walk away with the Lombardi trophy]

We are approaching the 25 year mark on my career. Does my dream job of building a championship-caliber die engineering and build team with owning the quoting method and die standards lurk on the horizon?

If I had THAT opportunity, the possibilities are boundless. I foresee a reversal of work going overseas back to my hometown with the right die engineering and build processes with my brand of modern die standards to guide the efforts.

I do not know if 2011 is my year or not, but I know this: I am having fun right now.

It seems like everyone rushes to say “we need faster quote tools” or “we need faster simulation software” or “we need faster die design programs” and the like.

I counter with faster does not mean better. Better is usually accuracy. Believe me, they want accuracy too. But speed is the challenge.

At the heart of the speed challenge is usually not about the job of quoting, forming, or designing. Quite the contrary.

When I was doing die design, I spent more time seeking information to do the job than it took to do the design job itself. The same goes for when I did formability analysis. Hell, I would spend more time trying to find out what some bullshit proprietary commodity code for material really was than it took to set up and run the simulation.

So, let’s take quoting for a detailed breakdown of what I am talking about. To quote a job, you need a process. Once you have a process or die operational lineup, most companies use some form of semi-automated Excel spreadsheet for quoting.

To process and quote a job, for instance, this is typically what happens:

1. Search for CAD file. (5 minutes)

2. Launch one-step to get blank size. (5 minutes)

3. One-step needs IGS and you have a Catia file. Go get coffee. (10 minutes)

4. Launch Catia, open file, and save as IGS. (10 minutes)

5. Run one-step to get blank. (5 minutes)

6. Determine process (5 minutes)

7. Get files needed to create process and quote forms (5 minutes)

8. Export images of part and blank from one-step (5 minutes)

9. Import images into process sheet and crop so they look pretty (5 minutes)

10. Fill out process form by copying info from a BOM (9 minutes)

11. Use Ouija board quoting tool to get price (1 minute)

12. Put quote 10 folders deep on a server to make them hard to find (10 minutes)

13. Take the quotes out of the folder and send to 57 people for review (10 minutes)

14. Make necessary changes and put back in the folder (10 minutes)

15. Take a nap until the next job comes up (usually 5 minutes) 

As you can see, most of what needs to happen to get the job done is NOT time well spent. Instead, it is spent doing things that really do not, or should not, matter.

Bottom line in this example is the quote itself – the price – is only 1% of the effort. Getting the quote depends on the process and the process takes 9% of the effort. The other 90% is spent getting to the point of doing the meaningful work.

Let’s say you cut the time spent quoting and processing by 90%. This comes down to 1 minute. Everything else still takes 90 minutes (in this example anyway). So now instead of having 90% of non-value, we have 99% non-value to complete the task.

Why not focus on cutting down on the non-value like searching for CAD files and material specs and such? Keep the coffee and lose the folders I say.

If you want to go faster, focus on cutting out the steps that consume non-value added time, like finding and converting CAD files.

See, it was my first day at General Motors as an apprentice on the die engineering apprenticeship. Over 20,000 people took a test that year. Only 12 people off the street got this coveted opportunity.

At 6:45 AM, Chris Colley comes walking down the steps from the second floor. “Are you here for the die engineering apprenticeship program?” he asks me with an expressionless face. I manage to say the word “yes”.

“Follow me”, was his only response.

We walked through the engineering space. The biggest room I had ever seen. Bay after bay of eight foot height vertical drafting boards that had to be 30 or 40 yards long.

The lighting was very bright, like a stadium. It was as loud as a stadium filled with rowdy sports fans. Between the 500+ people, high ceilings, glass windows on two sides, and tile floors, there was nothing to soak up the sound.

And no smoke eaters to soak up the thick haze of cigarette smoke in the air.

To an impressionable 19 year old kid from Detroit, it was intimidating.

As we made our way to a conference room, I look at the die drawings on these vertical boards. My first thought was that this was an endless sea of intersecting lines. My second thought was I am in over my head. Way over my head.

Chris introduces two journeyman trainers to the group of 13 apprentices (one was an existing GM employee). We were about to embark on a nine month boot camp to begin our 7,328 hour apprenticeship on engineering dies. The two trainers were going to take us from knowing nothing to designing dies on our own so we can function in the smoke-filled drafting room.

“My name is Ronny. You WILL call me Ronny!”, the first trainer barks to us. The second trainer, Boettcher (rhymes with poacher), is off to the side with a giant “the cat ate the mouse” grin on his face.

At this point, the experience is a cross between Full Metal Jacket and Deliverance. It is only 7:05 AM, and I am forcing back the urge to vomit.

“I am not Ron. That makes me sound like a pimp. And don’t call me Ronald. My mother calls me Ronald and I hate it”, he says, “It’s Ronny. And that is rule number one.”

He continues, “Rule number two is find out what they don’t like and give ‘em plenty of it.”

Now, I am confused. He hates being called Ronald, so do we call him Ronny or Ronald? Is this a test? Why did I quit my job to come here?

“Rule number three is you are pukes. Worthless apprentice pukes.”

I think, that is convenient because I feel like I am going to puke all over your expensive cowboy boots. And I know you won’t like that either.

That was 23 years ago today.

The program was a great experience and I do not regret a single minute of it.

The best part for me is the tight-knit group of wonderful people I hired in with. After all these years, we still stay in touch.

Happy anniversary to this blessed group : Chris, Larry, John, Doug, Ian, Kris, Grant, Terry, Anne, Danno, Gaspare, and Frank.

Within weeks of completing our 1,500 hour basic training, many of us in the group of 12 were moonlighting die design work. My design company was called Stamping Technologies, Inc., or STI for short.

A typical week looked like this:

Monday

• General Motors: 11 hours die design
• Lawrence Tech: 6 hours class time
• STI: 1 hour deliver progressive die design package

Tuesday

• General Motors: 11 hours die design
• Macomb College: 6 hours class time
• STI: 1 hour creating progressive die strip layout

Wednesday

• General Motors: 11 hours die design
• Lawrence Tech: 6 hours class time
• STI: 1 hour finishing progressive die strip layout

Thursday

• General Motors: 11 hours die design
• Macomb College: 6 hours class time
• STI: 1 hour finish and submit progressive die design quote package

Friday

• General Motors: 11 hours die design
• STI: 7 hours progressive die design

Saturday

• STI: 18 hours progressive die design

Sunday

• STI: 17 hours progressive die design

The total work week was 125 hours. It stacked up like this:

• 55 hours day job
• 24 hours college
• 46 hours moonlighting

We did this week in and week out for several years. There were two key things we did to achieve this level of performance:

• Trained our bodies to go without sleep
• Created an engineering system to “put the lines down once”

Over two decades later, I still find myself working those extended hours. I work anywhere from 28 to 40 hours straight before taking time off. When we were young, we would take only six hours off. Now, I have to take twice that time off to recover.