Do we rely on modern technology too much ?

[Illaveago]

Many years ago there wasn't a need for over complicated things. Many of the vehicles used the same parts, 6 and 7 inch headlamps, dynamo's ,alternators and starter motors could be exchange between different cars.
It has now got to a point where it is difficult to swap parts between the same model of vehicle.

 

[Drago]

In the RN we learned stores were for storing things, not for giving them out.

Just like the Army. Quartermaster Sergeants regularly got MBE's for a long and illustrious career of not giving things out.

 

[classic33]

Yes.

 

[Welsh wheels]

Simple question really ?

In my job we rely on a on line parts identification system , it crashes every so often and when it does its access is not available world wide so we are unable to id bits our customers need and there is no back up system to fall back on to and the paper manuals are not reliable enough when ordering £1500 + parts

I think so. I know I do.

 

[ColinJ]

"You can't have it because there's only one left and someone might need it"

I pointed out to a shopkeeper that his cold shelf always had lots of bottles of full-fat milk but never any semi-skimmed. He said that they did get semi-skimmed in but it always sold out in the morning. It wasn't worth increasing the order because semi-skimmed milk "is not as popular as full-fat"!

 

[Profpointy]

I pointed out to a shopkeeper that his cold shelf always had lots of bottles of full-fat milk but never any semi-skimmed. He said that they did get semi-skimmed in but it always sold out in the morning. It wasn't worth increasing the order because semi-skimmed milk "is not as popular as full-fat"!

Just buy full fat and water it down 50/50.

Money saving hint #234

 

[Tin Pot]

The reliance on technology isn't the problem.

The reluctance to invest time, effort and money in a proper business continuity plan is the problem. When the system does fall over the bosses run round flapping like John Inman in a semaphore class because they were too lazy/ignorant to have a business continuity plan to roll smoothly into action and save the day. The dibble were no better in this regard.

Indeed, which is why it's being enforced by law. At least for important systems.

Despite my profession I'm no lover of tech, but if you're going to do it FFS do it right.

That means maintaining systems, testing DR, backups and BCP. Yes, it's time to pay up chumps!

 

[Tin Pot]

IT has made redundancy and backup massively cheaper and easier to the point where most businesses do it.

A catastrophic event for a busines (fire, theft etc) can be restored in moments leaving nothing more than a minor interruption. I have known business fold after such events in the olden days when backup of paper, processes and infrastructure was the preserve of the larger organisations.

There is a rosy tinted view of offline businesses but many of the issues we face today (our website has been down for 2 hours!!!) is negligible to issues faced in the past(a fire has wiped out our last 3 years of accounts and all our invoices, we cannot survive this)

Hmm. I agree with the theory but...

 

[Racing roadkill]

Modern business constantly strives for maximum efficiency. This has come to mean that every business system is algorithm based. Algorithms feed information to other algorithms, which spit out numbers that are used by the human interface, to make as much money, as quickly as possible. The weak link is that the algorithms rely on computers to work properly, or they stop doing their job. There is rarely an analogue back up system available, so if the computers go down, everything stops. At the company I work for, we have a very good Enterprise resource planning system, that takes input data from all the bits of the company, chews up the numbers, and spits out how many of each thing we make, needs to be made, and sold, in a given time, to maximise income. It relies on the input data being correct, and the computers all working correctly, or it’s a nightmare. That’s the way of the world we live in now though.

 

[simon the viking]

I can remember a time when parts people used to refer to parts manuals to cross reference part numbers to see if there was an alternative part.

I still did this up to a year or so when i left the motor parts business...

It was amazing how many young rookies could not learn to use a paper catalogue for times when the need arose i.e older cars that wouldnt have a listing on the system