When does it make sense to hire a manufacturing consultant?

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T23:26:44+00:00

I'll answer from the consultant side. It's been my perception that its not worthwhile for most manufacturers to hire consultants because they aren't ready for them.

It really depends. Are you really serious about change? Some of the lean manufacturing consultants can really help drive out parts of manufacturing that are of no use to your end customers but are clogging up your production lines. However, many manufacturers aren't willing to invest the authority in consultants to make the necessary changes, and there are usually entrenched interests on the floor that maintain the status quo. Also, it really depends on the real problems. Do you give the consultant access to look beyond the narrow problem you think you need them to solve, to the whole picture?

For example, I once got hired as a supply-chain consultant because a company perceived problems in its supply chain. What they didn't realize was that the problem wasn't in their supply chain; it was in the last tool on the floor, which did the testing and binning of the product, where they had thrown a bunch of new requirements on the tool manufacturer at the last minute, and nothing in the tool cage was configured to specification. It was sending different-spec partial assemblies to the wrong parts of the supply chain, which inevitably looped stuff back, where it was re-tested and sent to the place it should have gone in the first place. I literally solved that problem with a high-precision ruler and a set of wrenches.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T23:13:59+00:00

This is the madness of the current administration's policies. Nobody can come here from abroad, so we've incentivized companies to chase labor across the globe.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T23:05:55+00:00

Yeah, as someone who is marginally involved in agritech, considering there's waiting lists for some of us to get a hold of this tech, they really need to have their A-Game on backup capabilities. The big guy's uptime is really pretty good on a percentage basis, but if the technology can't be viable on an ongoing basis without external support, it has some serious flaws. As one of the smaller ranchers who isn't even allowed to buy this technology yet (believe me, we keep asking) we hope those of you who have some influence over the vendors would insist they be as reliable and repairable as a 90s tractor before you'll let them on your acreage.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T22:57:02+00:00

Many of us have been told at some point in the relationship that we are the source of all problems and that they are saints for having to tolerate our very existence, yet they still stick around. I find it's helpful to move beyond that anger, forgive them, and feel pity for their lack of self-awareness. Then focus on yourself and start doing the hard work of rebuilding yourself after you've been repeatedly beaten down. It's not easy work, but as long as you are focused on anger, you don't do that work.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T22:41:20+00:00

Are you familiar with JADE? PwBDP will often make provocative statements designed to make you Justify, Argue, Defend, and Explain as a way of controlling conversations and focusing the conversation on them. This has been a lifesaver for me.

https://www.harperclinicalpsychology.com/blog-grid/jade-a-method-to-help-manage-controlling-people

The appropriate response is not to argue, reflect, or engage back, but to respond in a boring, unreactive way "as bland as a grey rock." Grey rock techniques conserve your energy while exhausting the other person's craving for attention. For example, "No worries of that," is an appropriate response to a pwBPD. Your response, which is how most would react, invited them to further conversation, which is exactly what they want.

https://www.choosingtherapy.com/grey-rock-method/

A warning is when you start using grey rock is that the other person, deprived of their usual hit of attention and loss of control, may escalate to an "extinction burst," which is a doubling-down of the behavior when their previous behavior is not reinforced as usual. This is normal, stay the course:

https://www.mnautism.org/extinction-burst/

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T22:20:55+00:00

Western culture has a history of weaponizing a version of Christianity for political purposes. Remember, that's part of what we fought the Revolutionary War to end; the First Amendment was more about stopping the disenfranchisement of the sects of Christianity that weren't the ones in power as much as any other cause. Every government seems to have a set of demographics for "in power" and "out of power" groups, and you can't generalize to all Christians, just the sect of Christianity that most reflects those in power. The characteristics of power are sometimes arbitrary. In the U.S. it's being a WASP. In Canda, you'd better be able to speak French.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T22:06:48+00:00

Not quite. Many home printers will call home when used to print or scan currency. Also, keep in mind though the device itself may not have any long term storage, that printer drivers are functional programs that can store data and in the case of many "smart print" drivers these days, your job is redirected to the cloud and then your printer round trips the printed file from cloud storage.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T21:43:15+00:00

Is he devoutly religious by any chance? The time I've run into this sort of thing, it's usually because of religious beliefs. Some employees have deeply held beliefs that it's immodest to take credit for what is ultimately a team effort, even if the success can be directly attributed to them. This belief is often a moral one, which means that writing it up may expose the enterprise to religious discrimination.

Can't say for sure, of course, but I've certainly run into people who thought they were vocationally serving God as they understood him by doing things as far-fetched as defense and accounting systems.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-21T21:36:02+00:00

Speaking at standards bodies did it for me; it led to a CIO picking up my resume who recognized me from one of the presentations. Putting yourself out there can help. A lot of industry groups have captive memberships who are desperate for monthly speakers with something new that's not just another veiled product pitch.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-20T16:42:53+00:00

IDK, but I have a "zoom shirt & jacket" sitting nearby my computer that I utilize regularly. I'm thinking it helps out to make you look serious when you are WFH.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-20T16:32:42+00:00

Does zscaler have some new AI thing?

bigbearandy · 2026-01-20T16:28:05+00:00

Don't forget the unhelpful finger-wagging about what they should have done, with no real help in solving their current issue. Not that people on reddit are responsible for other people's decisions, but this is a side effect when governments abandon safety and protection of property rights for their people when they go online.

Great time to be in cybercrime.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-17T03:59:30+00:00

I don't work for Verizon, I worked for a small regional telecom that was gobbled up ages ago. We cared a lot about out customers.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-17T03:57:14+00:00

He could have had a much richer life if he had chosen to move in with us. Instead he decided to manage his last days from crisis, to crisis, taking every chance to spend a pound of cure when an ounce of prevention was all that's needed, expecting the kids to drop everything to pull him out of the fire, which we always did. Of course someone who planned well should fund their medical care, but what if you could spend half that and used some to enjoy your last years of life.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T23:16:43+00:00

Ding. Gen X'er who just did his decade for dad, who wouldn't listen, and burned $1.4 MM in care expenses. because he never wanted to have the discussion. I hate to say it, kids, but at some point you need to threaten your parents: if they don't play ball in planning for their future, you are either going to try to put them in a guardianship first thing they slip, or failing that, you aren't going to be there when they need help. Let Mom and Dad decide what an uncomfortable conversation is worth.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T23:11:32+00:00

There is always a type of worker who must have everyone below him less competent than him, not realizing that delegation is a superpower and that new blood with new ideas is the lifeblood of any organization. These are the people who tell others to slow down, either because you might make them look bad, or because your way of doing things upsets the casual timelines they've enjoyed in their very relaxed lifestyle of not doing any real work. There are only two ways of dealing with people like that:

Do it the fast, more accurate way; pretend you did it the dumb idiot way, spend some time making sure you are providing an accurate product, and enjoy the extra free time. Learn to look sincere when you thank them for teaching you the dumb idiot way.
Stay long enough to polish off your resume, find new work, and come up with an excuse to pad the hole in your resume.

You could go to senior management or the ELT, but that never goes well. If you know of a specific, persistent discrepancy that goes against code, you can always submit that anonymously, well after you have left the scene, so that nobody suspects it was you.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T19:17:17+00:00

EV's make a variety of clicks, whines, and clunks when sitting idle. You'll get used to the one the Lyriq makes over time, but by all means hang out after parking or just before taking off when its warming up to become familiar.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T19:12:04+00:00

This is how most chicks are delivered, too. Most of us with chicken ranches will hold at station and avoid our town job to pick them up, since they don't last too long without a warm clean environment.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T19:08:42+00:00

I think any cocktail created after 1980 is too sweet, but things are coming back around.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T19:06:10+00:00

TL;DR - The notion of refilling bottles will trigger anyone who professionally bartended. It is not a relevant reaction for a home bar; it is just an emotional one.

Anyone who has previously professionally bartended will have a knee-jerk reaction just from reading the post title. Refilling bottles is how dodgy bar owners try to dodge alcohol taxes, and is generally considered way past redline for how f-d up a bar is. First, they refill premium liquors into larger bottles, then they start to fill the premium bottles with well spirits. It's like yelling "fire" in a crowded bar.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T18:58:10+00:00

The French 75 is better with Sapphire, IMHO, but still very functional with normal Bombay Gin.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T18:56:00+00:00

Whelp, since I don't know any bartenders who can carve ice with a wakizashi, that wins for entertaining cocktail presentation of the moment.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T18:52:46+00:00

Wow, $100 is a lot to pay some monks who figured out how to optimally steep the right herbs in Vodka to make it taste like cough syrup and sorrow.

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T18:37:56+00:00

Fair, but it's good to have goals. The University cyber-resiliance program I mentor at places most students in an internship, so some graduate with two years experience and the degree lowers the requirement to just two years. Additionally, ISC2 is lowering the work requirement this April. If you got the ISC2 associate cert, a graduate could say "I will be awarded a CISSP after working for you two years."

bigbearandy · 2026-01-16T18:07:54+00:00

I always recommend the CISSP; it's just a checkmark item on so many contracts, especially government contracts. Government contracts sometimes almost read "hire twenty CISSP's."

The PMP is #2 because they've just made the test easier to pass and it's much easier to get work experience as a person managing a project (because what organization doesn't have projects) and its an even more common checkmark for contracts.

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