[Elecraft] Solder in Elecraft kits - Business Opportunity?

[Fred (FL)]

While as a young EE engineer at Eastman Kodak, in
Rochester - we were immersed in a active "employee
suggestion program".  Every accepted suggestion,
especially if a cost-saver - would result in Kodak
giving submitter employee(s) a percentage 1-time of
the dollars saved for the company.

The recent discussion "...should we ship solder
with every kit" reminded me of this true story.
2 young engineers calculated the dollar cost to
Kodak, for the company to ship "BATTERIES" along
with every camera, out to distributors and
eventually to Kodak camera customers.  These
engineers, thru their research, found out that
often these batteries would age while sitting
on some distributors shelf - perhaps long before
it ever got shipped to a camera store or Kmart.
Sometimes it would take over a year or more, for
a new camera product - to go thru the dales
and distribution chain.

So their suggestion was simply, to NOT include any
batteries with the cameras being shipped to
distributors, or wherever.  At worst, the
camera store, could introduce batteries later in
the camera's lifetime.  The cost savings to
Kodak was large, and I recall all of us engineers
hearing that Bill & Hank shared a Kodak Suggestion
Award of $48,000 for their idea.

Moral of this loooong story?  Elecraft should
implement a suggestion system for us customers.
If the idea saves Elecraft real monies - they
would give us a small percentage, like 10% of
the idea's savings.  And if the suggestion, like
some of our postings on this mail list of late,
looses the company money - they will increase
the cost of one's K2 or K3 accordingly.  Fair?

By the way, my 1976 Kodak Suggestion Award, knowing
that the "Suggestion Department HAD TO FOLLOW UP
and INVESTIGATE EVERY SUGGESTION IDEA" - was tongue
in cheek - "Kodak should install long flexible
rubber ramps from the Engineering Building's
4th floor windows, down to ground level, to
provide us employees an opportunity for a quick
exit, should a building emergency occur".
Kodak's Suggestion Dept. response = "Idea
not accepted, we feel current escalators are
adequate in an emergency".  :)  :(

de Fred, N3CSY
.... Kodak CAD EE guy


       
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