MEW 337

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

… was delivered this morning my a very damp-looking Postman

I found Brian Wood’s article fascinating and well-presented, and am looking forward to reading Mike Tilby’s later today.

That seems a pretty good start !

Thanks, gentlemen

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

[ PostScript ]

Having just glanced at p27 … I am surprised disappointed that Leitz/Leica UK did not recognise a Hand Microtome.

Too busy selling the modern equipment, I presume.

MichaelG.

.

Ref. __ http://www.leitzmuseum.org/Misc-Leitz/Microtomes-Slide-Prep/1910-

Microtome/

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Im afraid most company employees do not stay at companies very long and are not interesed in the history of said company only the here and now. Sad but a fact.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

As staff retire and are replaced, by newer and younger personnel, the history tends to be lost.

Before retirement was twice sent on Kaizen seminars, to help brainstorm problems. In both cases the problem had been solved several years previously on non current products.

The other participants did not know of the existence of what had been “bread and butter” products which had been the mainstay of the company’s fortunes.

“No interest in legacy products” is the first step towards re inventing the wheel

Howard

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

I have to agree Howard. When I was in industry I reckoned such knowledge was on roughly a 20 year cycle; the answer often lay forgotten in filing cabinets and only the old timers were aware of that; even to the point of finding the information to present to those busily re-inventing the wheel.

It must be worse now with the new layers of digital information laid down like sediments to entomb those records.

Brian

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

We saw the same sort cycle in IT:- outsourced; departmental control, central control, outsourced etc. It isn’t helped by the fact that, while minions may be in a department or role for three decades, directors are often in a role (or company) for only half a dozen years. I got an annual pay rise blocked for taking an IT director to task for a particular bit of idiocy, The union sorted that out 😀

[Howard Lewis]

On Howard Lewis Said:

…

Before retirement was twice sent on Kaizen seminars, to help brainstorm problems. In both cases the problem had been solved several years previously on non current products.

…
Howard

A clear sign of something rotten in the State of Denmark. The methodology specifically says that Kaizen meetings shouldn’t be held if the answer is already known.  Howard’s employer had attacked the wrong problem; they needed to use Kaizen to find and fix the reason their organisation was so forgetful – probably poor record keeping.

I sympathise though because my employer radically downsized it’s HQ operation dumping about 60% of the team in one fell move.  This was done to save money and improve efficiency.  Result: a severe dose of corporate Alzheimer’s.  Out in the sticks we suddenly got panic calls from HQ who had lost the plot, discovering they had many management problems where they didn’t know one or more of who, what, when, where or how!    No idea how it turned out as I retired.    My guess is it was painfully sorted out eventually and that a great deal of time and money was wasted.  Probably still many skeletons lurking in the closets.

On the whole change is necessary, and a good thing done properly at the right time, but it’s all too frequently botched, or left until it’s too late.

By the by, when a Lean Six Sigma team turned up, it usually meant that unbeknownst to them everyone was happily working in the Last Chance Saloon, and it wasn’t going to last.  A common reaction to reform was to ignore and belittle the need for change, shortly after which people were laid off in droves, and maybe the employer closed down entirely.  Danger signs:  Queen’s Award for Industry, Engineer running the company, new Accountant, and Kaizen or similar in the building.   Exceedingly painful for all caught in the mangle, especially for those who loved their work, couldn’t believe anything was wrong, and were convinced they had a safe job for life.

Dave

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

As a former colleague once said “They don’t know that they don’t know”

The problem is worsened by the drive to go paperless, so that no hard copy record exists; and then someone comes along and decrees that to save cost, all digital messages must be deleted after 90 days.

Consequently time and money is spent solving a problem to which the solution was known, and had been implemented a long time before the present inhabitants had joined the company.

And they are blissfully unaware of the need to ask (IF anyone is still there who knows!).

Maybe, in century or so, when the deposits of Lithium and Cadmium have been exhausted, someone will invent a fantastic new power source that invoves burning a hydrocarbon fuel in the cylinder of a reciprocating engine, with waste heat being used to hesat the passenger compartment of the vehicle?

But we won’t be around to say how to refine operation!

Howard

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

When I was still in gainful employment I developed the ‘blue **sed fly” theory. Give a problem to one of the new young MBA trained people and they would rush about like the aforesaid insect for months before coming up with a solution (which might even work). Give the same problem to an old hand and he’ll probably have done something similar before, so the solution is produced in short order. The BAF impresses the big chiefs with his/her energy and drive, whereas the old hand is pensioned off as he doesn’t rush about.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

[ PostScript ]

Having just glanced at p27 … I am surprised disappointed that Leitz/Leica UK did not recognise a Hand Microtome.

Too busy selling the modern equipment, I presume.

MichaelG.

.

Ref. __ http://www.leitzmuseum.org/Misc-Leitz/Microtomes-Slide-Prep/1910-

Microtome/

 

The Editor did, but he didn’t want to spoil the fun for readers 🙂

Yes, I was surprised they couldn’t identify their own product.

Neil

[Neil Wyatt]

On Neil Wyatt Said

[…]

Yes, I was surprised they couldn’t identify their own product.

Lafayette, of Japan evidently thought it good-enough to copy :

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1270441605/lafayette-cylinder-microtome-f-442-with

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

It’s quite a simple device really, just needs care in the making and the right materials, I imagine.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Yes, Neil … the basic concept is ludicrously simple, and many rough & ready ones have been made from nuts & bolts.

Until [when, I wonder?] teaching practices changed … any kid studying Biology would have used a hand microtome of some sort.

That’s why I was so disappointed by the response from Leica … thin sections are the very essence of much microscopy.

 

That particular model [in common with Moore’s 1440 indexing device discussed in another Topic] is a fine example of how a simple thing, made with exceptional care, becomes magnificent.

MichaelG.

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Edit: __ This is what they are busy flogging now, of course:

https://www.leicabiosystems.com/en-gb/research/research-microtomes/

 

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Funnily enough, having an Engineer running the company was not a danger sign.  We always did well with an Engineer in charge. They got out onto the shop floor, knew first hand what was going on, and understood it.

The worst times were when an accountant was in charge, because basically, they did not not understand what the comany was manufacturing, or the customer’s problems when they arose.

Some HR “expert” wqould not promote someone who knew the items with which he was dealing, but having done so for twenty years, “Lacked experience”.

Instead, they brought in a younger man with a degree in Recent History, who was charming, but hardly knew the difference between a woodscrew and a bolt.  He was an embarassment!

As a colleague said “He didn’t know that he didn’t know”

Experience allows you to recognise the mistake the next time that you make it!

Howard

[Howard Lewis]

On Howard Lewis Said:

Funnily enough, having an Engineer running the company was not a danger sign…

Howard

I should have explained why I said it was a danger sign!

It’s not because engineers are automatically bad managers who don’t understand people, money or markets!  It’s because prejudice against engineers means they are rarely allowed to take charge.  An engineer getting the top job often meant that everyone else had failed, and the company was already on the rocks.

Commercial success is very much a team game, and organisations have to be arranged to get the best out of everybody.  As no-one understands everything, it can’t be expected that an engineer will understand the accounts, or that an accountant will understand technology, or that either will notice that the business relies on a product-line that’s becoming uncompetitive.

Most specialists have blind-spots.  Engineers tend to insist on producing the best possible product, irrespective of time and cost.  Bad because most customers only want ‘value for money’, and they want it now please.   Accountants obsess with balancing the books, and tend to be risk averse.   Managers tend to bog down in people, admin and operational problems – hiring, firing, disciplinary issues, budget management,  scheduling, and sorting out problems etc.  They’re often prevented from improving efficiency or effectiveness by everyone else – because change always hurts somebody!   The workforce tend only to see immediate local problems, and are often blissfully unaware of serious issues elsewhere.   Shareholders and owners tend to obsess about profits, and might cheerfully destroy a company by asset stripping it.   Leaders worry about the future, and might not notice serious operational problems or structural issues.  They also tend to play politics, worrying more about their bonuses and next job, than the organisation itself.  Thus we see the Post Office leadership rewarded with large payouts and honours, whilst guilty of overseeing an scandalous large-scale injustice of the worst kind.

Difficult to get the balance of skills right and then maintain it.  Many organisations get themselves into a position where they can’t or won’t change, or fail to implement change effectively.  In the last 3 decades of the 20th century, large numbers of British manufacturing companies collapsed.  They had failed to remain competitive in a rapidly changing world, more to do with attitudes than engineering.  It’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks.  For example the almost universal resistance to metrication was toxic because  customers mostly wanted metric, and had absolutely no loyalty to Imperial measure.    Allowing elderly foremen in the 1970s to tell youngsters straight from college to ignore metric was was a bad mistake.

Sad but true that by the time an engineer was running the company, it was too late.   Many exceptions of course.

Dave

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Duncans tale of the 16/02 is so true – I have had the misfortune to see it all to often ! Noel.

[Raymond GriffinParticipant @raymondgriffin40985]

[Raymond GriffinParticipant @raymondgriffin40985]

These may be of interest to the microscopists/histologists. The discussion on hand microtomes led me to find this old hand microtome and knives from my years in pathology laboratories. The Leitz microtome for cutting frozen sections was screwed onto a carbon dioxide cylinder that delivered liquid CO2 through an inner tube, freezing the tissue placed on the top. The knife slid on glass runners to cut the thin slices or sections which were then stained, placed on a glass microscope slide and viewed in a microscope. This one was used to examine tissues from the operating theatre to provide an instant diagnosis, often benign vs malignant.

Sorry, couldn’t get the text and photos in the same submission.

Ray Griffin

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks, Ray … very interesting

Curiously enough, I recently purchased an old microtome with glass runners.

It was the first I had seen with that feature.

MichaelG.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

We built a few at the Lab using blades that were oscillated by employing a coil solenoid driven by a power oscillator. The whole thing was mounted on a granite base. I think there is still one in operation although the Lab bought some fancy ones with diamond knives. Really thin EM grid samples are prepared by electron beam milling these days.

regards Martin

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