My wife and I were on a long drive, to or from seeing family in another part of the country. Get to indifferent hotel, late. Maybe Kentucky? I go down to the bar, strike up a conversation with the guy next to me, who is . . . a truck mechanic. Many of the same problems.
A few thoughts. One is coordination software is often used to set prices, extort odd fees, and all sorts of other shenanigans. The revival of antitrust law is starting to/may turn its attention to this kind of thing. Matt Stoll has an excellent substack, "Big" about these issues.
Parts. I have been waiting months for a replacement part for a car (MB GLE 450 (2020)). It's been a nightmare. And installing the part will cost thousands. My brother used to be VP for a car company, in charge of dealers. One told him: your cars are fun to drive, easy to break, and tough to fix. Some of this is intentional. There are many things independents cannot do, or can only do if they buy expensive software. And the parts are all, as you say, bespoke. And getting say furniture fixed . . . there is something just annoying about objects that, as a practical matter, go unfixed. My point is that our material world is in many ways getting crappier, even if things might work better out of the box, or have new bells and whistles.
Complexity. You might want to look at "Boeing, Complexity, Culture". It's a sort of round table talking about how systems get more and more complex, even if not necessarily better. The Machine, as you put it. I teach capitalism, and this bothers me a lot. Not sure I have much wisdom that's not in the piece. Also kinda proud of some of those images.
Grant- You’re right in that it’s hard to find a place/person to bill for all the overhead stuff that no one ever accounts for. Especially when your job means wearing hats you didn’t get to get paid for. Glad you highlighted this important issue.
This was great. I've deal with all the same stuff, I work as the parts guy at a small independant truck shop in NY. I've been thinking about "the machine" lately too as we had to get technical info from Dana/Spicer. Their newer site doesn't have a way to look it up. I had to email my vendor, so they can email Spicer because they only talk to direct customers now. But then apparently now there is literally 1 tech person for the US. Massive multibillion dollar company, 1 tech person. I actually got the answer quicker through the dealer. After the situation was already resolved haha. The Machine has also been buying up all the dealerships around us, and I mostly hear complaints. By the people who deal with them, and those that worked there. Speaking of Cummins, they bought up Meritor, and partner with Eaton on a lot of things, so it literally might just be them for drivetrains soon. Quite a gravitational pull.
This is very good. I will try to reread more slowly. For now, thank you, and keep up the good work.
Thanks for reading!
My wife and I were on a long drive, to or from seeing family in another part of the country. Get to indifferent hotel, late. Maybe Kentucky? I go down to the bar, strike up a conversation with the guy next to me, who is . . . a truck mechanic. Many of the same problems.
A few thoughts. One is coordination software is often used to set prices, extort odd fees, and all sorts of other shenanigans. The revival of antitrust law is starting to/may turn its attention to this kind of thing. Matt Stoll has an excellent substack, "Big" about these issues.
Parts. I have been waiting months for a replacement part for a car (MB GLE 450 (2020)). It's been a nightmare. And installing the part will cost thousands. My brother used to be VP for a car company, in charge of dealers. One told him: your cars are fun to drive, easy to break, and tough to fix. Some of this is intentional. There are many things independents cannot do, or can only do if they buy expensive software. And the parts are all, as you say, bespoke. And getting say furniture fixed . . . there is something just annoying about objects that, as a practical matter, go unfixed. My point is that our material world is in many ways getting crappier, even if things might work better out of the box, or have new bells and whistles.
Complexity. You might want to look at "Boeing, Complexity, Culture". It's a sort of round table talking about how systems get more and more complex, even if not necessarily better. The Machine, as you put it. I teach capitalism, and this bothers me a lot. Not sure I have much wisdom that's not in the piece. Also kinda proud of some of those images.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidawestbrook/p/boeing-complexity-culture?r=13evep&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hope you keep battling the machine to a draw, and keep up the good work.
Grant- You’re right in that it’s hard to find a place/person to bill for all the overhead stuff that no one ever accounts for. Especially when your job means wearing hats you didn’t get to get paid for. Glad you highlighted this important issue.
This was great. I've deal with all the same stuff, I work as the parts guy at a small independant truck shop in NY. I've been thinking about "the machine" lately too as we had to get technical info from Dana/Spicer. Their newer site doesn't have a way to look it up. I had to email my vendor, so they can email Spicer because they only talk to direct customers now. But then apparently now there is literally 1 tech person for the US. Massive multibillion dollar company, 1 tech person. I actually got the answer quicker through the dealer. After the situation was already resolved haha. The Machine has also been buying up all the dealerships around us, and I mostly hear complaints. By the people who deal with them, and those that worked there. Speaking of Cummins, they bought up Meritor, and partner with Eaton on a lot of things, so it literally might just be them for drivetrains soon. Quite a gravitational pull.