~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Innovative Solutions __________June 2005
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this issue
-- Feature Article - Accelerated Life Test - Your Key to New Product
Success
-- Personal News - Flying Otter Vineyard
-- On the Lighter Side - Corporate Lesson #2
Welcome to the June 2005 edition of Innovative Solutions, the monthly newsletter from Innovative Thermal Solutions. If you find this information interesting or useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Word count approx. 500 | |
Feature Article - Accelerated Life Test - Your Key to New Product Success ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Are you
frustrated with product reliability problems? I recently ran across the following quote: "No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art."...Henry Petroski This immediately reminded me of Accelerated Life Test (ALT) and its underlying philosophy of testing products to failure. I'm always surprised at how many companies I run across that still don't take advantage of this powerful product development tool. ALT truly is Your Key to New Product Success. You can guarantee outstanding product reliability when introducing a new product or design change. For more information on Accelerated Life Test, see my full article here. | |
Personal News - Flying Otter Vineyard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last month
several people asked, "Where does the name come from"? The Flying part is
simple; it's a reflection of my interest in aviation and the fact that I'm
building my own airplane. The otter part comes from my last name, Utter.
My oldest known ancestor, Nicholas Mattson Utter was the first "Utter" in
America. He came to the New Sweden Colony aboard the ship Orn in 1654.
Prior to 1901, Swedish people used what is called Patronymics, a system by
which children are known as the son of a certain individual. An example
would be Nils, the son of Anders would be known as Nils Anderson, while
Nils' son Peter would be Peter Nilson. This created problems in large
military units where people had the same first and last names. Many of
these soldiers were given military surnames when entering the service as
happened with Nicholas Mattson Utter. Various techniques were used to
assign these names, including the use of animals. Utter is Swedish for
Otter, thus the Flying Otter Vineyard is born.The planting went very well. It took us four days to dig the holes, plant the vines, install the fence posts, wire, stakes, and grow tubes. In fact it went so well that I ordered another 30 vines just to complete the last row. We have 205- Frontenac, 15- St. Croix and 15- Sabrevois vines planted. The best ones are already growing out of the top of the grow tubes (30"). And, unfortunately there are a few that still just look like sticks in the ground. Fortunately, there are very few in the latter category. We have had way less than normal rainfall this past month. We have watered the vines by hand three times. Overall, I remain excited about the new vineyard. | |
On the Lighter Side - Corporate Lesson #2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A crow was
sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him, "Can I also
sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered: "Sure, why
not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. A fox
jumped on the rabbit and ate it. Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up. | |
Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: bob@innovativethermal.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
| ||||||