http://blog.thisisthelaststraw.com/" title="This is the Last Straw">This is the Last Straw

Earlier this month I sat in a conference room designed for 16 people with 18 colleagues from the various businesses that own fractions of or represent The Last Straw L.L.C.  Standing room only…for a straw?  Yes, that is exactly what I was observing and I will have to say that a sense of pride and joy came over me several times that day.  We have been meeting for quite some time, however, it is rare to have everyone present at any one meeting.

Canada, Austria, Germany and the USA; representatives from each were in attendance.  When I say we had some serious talent in the room it is a drastic understatement.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I started around 2004 with this project; well this is why it has taken so long.  Not only working through the concept and design, but also building a team of fantastic people and companies that can make it happen.  Making one perfect part is light years away from being able to produce millions of perfect parts.

Everyday people don’t have a clue (I didn’t) as to the manufacturing complexities of all of the high volume products they use and consume on a daily basis.  Shows like “How its Made” and “Made in America” shed a little light on these topics, however they never tell or show you the true secrets and the nuts and bolts. They always just show visuals of the production line running fast and the finished product.  The work done to produce the machinery, tooling, automation and handling systems is the real tough work and that is exactly where we are with this project. Close doesn’t count in this business, everything must be perfect and repeatable. Our partner Starlim//Sterner’s slogan “automatically perfect” captures it perfectly .

We are moving right along and should have some exciting news to share soon.

Thanks,

Robert