It’s Always the Obvious

Having been on the job for over 62 years, I have many stories that reinforce some of my philosophies. One is that when there is a problem in manufacturing and everybody is having trouble trying to figure out what is going wrong – “It’s always the obvious.”

One crucial piece of equipment we have is Press #2, which we acquired in 1957 and still use today. During the time I’m referring to, we operated the press at 230 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 8PSI (pounds per square inch) of steam. We had just updated our boiler system and had to raise the piping to accommodate the new boiler.

As soon as we put the press back on line the temperature control went haywire and we couldn’t control the temperature of the press. This caused a lot of scrap.

Initially, I worked on the problem with my crew and the maintenance staff. We thought and thought and ran experiments and finally decided to go to our Lab for help. After a couple of days of studying the situation the Lab told me their conclusion – the new plumbing had changed the magnetic field around the press!

I asked them to leave my office. I said to myself, “That’s absurd” and decided the solution was probably “obvious” and we would look silly when it was solved.

So, I thought – What’s obvious? We had changed the plumbing to the press. That had to be it. It was obvious. We experimented with some adjustments that resulted in the press being able to function the same as it did before the plumbing upgrades. It turned out that was the answer and we fixed it easily. We’d spent a lot of time seeking exotic answers to a problem that we couldn’t immediately solve. In the end the solution was obvious and we did feel silly.

“It’s always the obvious” has stuck with me since then……and it almost always IS the obvious that is the answer.

The Gill Corporation
4056 Easy Street
El Monte, CA 91731-1087 USA

Phone: 626-443-4022
Fax: 626-350-5880
Email: info@thegillcorp.com