I need to restart the budget discussion with a smaller, honest question. My FR5 unloading estimate covered hardware and quietly left fixture design to my colleague. He wants the current mounting-block job measured before we ask a supplier for a pilot. What should that first study return to both of us?
Agree the current job's boundaries and the proposed study deliverables together. Include preparation, unloading, release, changeover and interruptions, with your colleague's contribution priced. The result can be options and unresolved questions rather than a promise of production tooling.
I'd ask him what he hopes the measurement will settle. Is he doubtful about the grip, the fixture work, or whether unloading saves useful time between his other tasks? You may be trying to buy an answer to the wrong objection.
Mostly the last one, Kai. He checks and prepares the blocks between other work. Taking away the actual lift might save very little while making him prepare a whole tray in advance.
Include who keeps the fixture usable after the trial designer leaves. An inexpensive prototype can become an expensive permanent dependency if your colleague is the only person who knows its adjustments.
Agreed. The study will compare our current individual preparation with the proposed tray preparation, not assume they're equivalent. Fixture upkeep is a named question now too.
Keep the study separate from an authorised physical pilot. The latter needs its own defined setup, safeguarding, supervision and acceptance scope; a useful preparation comparison does not make those costs unnecessary.
Felix, yes, though the first comparison might tell Daniel not to build that pilot at all. I'd make that an ordinary decision, not something the team calls failure after paying for useful information.
No hardware commitment after the study. We want complete-job observations and candidate arrangements, then a stop-or-continue review. My colleague has agreed time for the observations, not unlimited fixture development.
Concept drawings and a review meeting. No manufactured fixture, no production program. That exclusion is explicit, so his later design work cannot be mistaken for something already purchased.
Ask what files and assumptions accompany those drawings. A picture that's impossible for your chosen toolmaker to interpret may leave the next stage repeating work you thought the study covered.
And retain which mounting-block variants the observations cover. A result for the common shape should not silently become an answer for a less frequent variant with different preparation.
Has measuring the current job changed either of your expectations yet, Daniel? I don't mean a final savings number; sometimes the first useful result is discovering which task keeps interrupting everything else.
Early observations show the check before unloading takes more attention than the lift itself. We are keeping that task in both options. Still collecting representative orders, so no savings figure claimed.
Thanks for keeping it in scope. Will your colleague review the final comparison before it goes into the budget summary? He should be able to recognise his actual job in the result.