Page 207 - MY STORY

some 40 units for delivery during the engineering

development phase.

Dave gathered a small team of a metallurgist,

measurements guy, analyst, plasma spray specialist, and a
grizzled old welder that knew how to weld titanium and
nickel alloy. The contractor was desperate for these parts,

but did not like our fixed price bid – our bottom line was
too pricey. We did not budge on price, so the contractor
agreed to let us proceed on a “time and materials” basis,

so we could begin the process of developing the
know-how and tools to build this complex thing while

being paid for those efforts.

Keep in mind that our organization was an R&D bunch,
we had never been trained to deliver production articles to

comply with an engineering print and to get through “first
article inspection.”

As we continued work we found that this was going to be
anything but “build to print.” The contractor was in the

throes of making changes and drawings did not always
meet the rigor required for part manufacture. The bottom
line was that when we finally achieved a fixed price

contract we knew what the heck we were doing.