Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/1268627
I DA U N I V E R S A L J u l y -Au g u s t 2 0 2 0 48 LEGAL LINE Continued from page 11 standard bearings with "slightly diff erent" dimensions and not selling to the a er- market, thus ensuring a steady fl ow of dollars, marks and yen into its coff ers. Cat tried desperately to tell several federal judges that every Cat part was the product of painstaking and costly original research, and a er- market parts were dangerously inferior. Truth be told, Cat had long established its ES-1 and ES-2, which were 5-8 six-inch ring binders of engineering standards for vendor parts, from bearings, cylinder rings and seals, electrical connec- tions, and every part in between. ese were manda- tory design elements which could only be deviated from by act of higher manage- ment. Cat's lawyers sought to suppress the fact that a target of Cat's litigation du jour was selling exactly the same Fafnir or Timken bearing as Cat, but without success. GM's Saturn brand folly used GM's money muscle to pressure suppliers into making Saturn unique parts and keeping them off the a ermarket. ere were not enough Saturn cars on the road to create a viable a er- market, thus making the owners indentured to the dealers. is ensured that Saturn repairs were Mercedes costly in a lower-market-tier car. Despite the best eff orts of the marketing department, it ended disastrously for GM with nearly a $1 billion write- off and legions of customers fl eeing into the waiting arms of Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai. Nonetheless, this continued standardization has now moved into the hybrid and battery electric motive power and opera- tional/functional designs of emerging equipment. e original Toyota Prius was "one of a kind," regarding electrical power equipment, but as technology has emerged and multiplied – as it has since the 1920s – the Society of Automo- tive Engineers has developed a rapidly expanding set of standards that are spilling over to off -road designs. Why? Because like Cat in the 1980s, creating a design that uses many standardized parts and components is more cost eff ective and minimizes dependence on a lower-tier supplier to remain loyal. And, because the standards are not only the product of good core product engineering, but also are accessible to all, vendors are made to compete instead of taking OEM hostages and/ or building anti-competitive fences for the OEMs. Many standards fi rst set by the SAE have evolved into the NTSTB, FAA, and other governmental safety standards for everything from the mandatory use of headlights to their height and light patterns, to braking standards, tire wear bars, un-burstable hose connections, and so on. e results? Safety, ease and economy of manufacturing, fi eld interchangeability, and most importantly, access to an a ermarket of quality parts. Drilling down, liter- ally, a familiar example is the modern fl uid pressure hose end and its connection to a cylinder, pump, or valve block. Pre-standardization, this coupling could be pipe thread, a proprietary thread arrangement, a bolted fl ange, or whatever the fertile minds of the engineering department might devise. Standardization was achieved with the now virtually universal straight thread and o-ring fi tting/ jam nut design, mirrored by its companion threaded and chamfered hole in the "connected" part. Fred Lennon of Cleveland's Swagelok company took this the rest of the way with no-crimp replacement ends that ended the mystery of hydraulic repair forever. In our industry, we need to, as continuing coursework at Electric University, take time to learn and understand the new standards and work with our own engineering departments and vendors to get out in front of this inevi- table wave of hybridization and battery electric equipment and systems. e OEMs will surely try to make as many of their machines and parts "non-standard" as possible, but today the OEMs are more dependent than ever on tier suppliers. For the core engineering, it is o en both an economic move, as well as to take advan- tage of "free" engineering and manufacturing expertise that does not represent a dreaded bottom line capex or depart- ment cost. It is, instead, baked into a part-by-part cost... paradigm shi on the install- ment plan and passed on to the end user. e a ermarket needs to be fully graduated from Electric University to be able to improvise, adapt, and overcome the inevitable OEM barriers to supplying parts for the next generations of equipment. To do otherwise is nothing more than reprising a Saturn dealership with easily predictable results. Legacy markets are fi nite, and while still continuing, nothing is forever. Lastly, off message of sorts, we are all in a period of incredible stress, with uncer- tainty on every level, and governmental fumbling and bumbling. It will be far worse before it gets better, and it is plainly and stupidly due to lack of enforced standards. e "engineers" from the scien- tifi c and medical worlds have provided simple and highly eff ective standards: wear masks, avoid contact, reduce exposure, adapt to economic problems, live diff erently for the time being, and don't kill others by stupidity…pretty simple stuff . We routinely accept mandatory immunizations for travel in lesser developed parts of the world without a second thought. What is diff erent today? Unfortunately, the "exposure" issue has been foolishly and dangerously politicized by believers and non-believers – right, le and center alike. And, the