Hello from San Diego:
One of my colleagues has added material of interest to
one of Chris Allen's humorous stories.
Best regards,
Rich
This is actually a true story (with some adjustment). It happened at a Ford
plant back in the 1930's (which makes the $50K fee all the more
significant). The engineer was brought over from Germany to fix the
problem, and Henry Ford was appreciative of the service, but outraged with
the bill. Thus he demanded an itemization of it thinking he could out one
over on this engineer and reduce the amount. And he did, in fact get the
itemization below. Henry Ford paid the bill.
Mario Raia
10319 SE 15th Street, Suite 100
Vancouver, WA 98664
360-891-6113
360-891-6114 Fax
mr...@ipinc.net Email
> > > Comprehending Engineers-Take 2
>
> There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things
> mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily
> retired. Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly
> impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion dollar
> machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to
> work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer
> who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
> The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the
> huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a
> particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your problem
> is".
> The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The company
> received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded
> an itemised accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly:
> One chalk mark $1
> Knowing where to put it $49,999
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