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Fusion_power · October 10, 2016

I read a story in a book one time about a newly graduated and hired mechanical engineer who was given a task to procure a bearing. The newbie promptly sat down at his desk, designed the correct bearing with proper race, temperature characteristics, diameter, etc. He sent it off to their in-house manufacturing group to make the bearing. Less than an hour later, the manufacturing supervisor came up to see him to tell him their equipment was not designed to mill bearing grade steel to the tolerances required and that he would have to re-do the specs with something they could make. He then re-worked the specs making it a bit blockier, just a tad wider and otherwise up to snuff so manufacturing could build it. His manager then came over and asked to look at the plans and asked him how much he estimated it would cost to make in-house. The newbie estimated maybe $300. The manager then pulled up a suppliers webpage and in less than a minute found a comparable bearing in stock and available for $7.50. Moral of the story: Don't re-invent the wheel unless the economics support doing so.

October 10, 2016	#150
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	I read a story in a book one time about a newly graduated and hired mechanical engineer who was given a task to procure a bearing. The newbie promptly sat down at his desk, designed the correct bearing with proper race, temperature characteristics, diameter, etc. He sent it off to their in-house manufacturing group to make the bearing. Less than an hour later, the manufacturing supervisor came up to see him to tell him their equipment was not designed to mill bearing grade steel to the tolerances required and that he would have to re-do the specs with something they could make. He then re-worked the specs making it a bit blockier, just a tad wider and otherwise up to snuff so manufacturing could build it. His manager then came over and asked to look at the plans and asked him how much he estimated it would cost to make in-house. The newbie estimated maybe $300. The manager then pulled up a suppliers webpage and in less than a minute found a comparable bearing in stock and available for $7.50. Moral of the story: Don't re-invent the wheel unless the economics support doing so.