Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly.
Andy Connors never remembered being so nervous. He’d hardly slept a wink and now that his bedroom clock showed it was 6 a.m., he knew he might as well get up. After taking a shower, he ate a light breakfast and headed out to pick up Sue.
The reason for his nervousness? He and Sue, his fiancée, were going to “help” distinguished Ivy University Professor Patty Coleman with a cost-estimating problem. He certainly didn’t feel qualified to accomplish this task.
“Hi, sweetie,” Andy said as he greeted Sue.
“I am so nervous,” she said. “Me too,” he responded.
They both shared stories about not being able to sleep, then Sue said, “Remember, Professor Coleman wants us to call her Patty.”
“When we are with her and I start to talk, my mouth just can’t form the word Patty,” Andy responded. “I have an idea: Let’s call her Professor Patty, like Sam does.”
“I agree. It’s kind of cute and endearing, too.”
After a 20-minute drive, they arrived at Ivy U and parked. A short walk took them to Professor Coleman’s office.
“Hello,” Professor Patty said as they walked in. “How are Ivy U’s two most recent and famous students doing?” Both youngsters blushed at the compliment.
After a brief discussion of their adventures in Mexico, Patty suggested they head to her car to begin the 40-minute drive to the factory for the cost-estimating project. In the car, Sue and Andy shared their experience with estimating costs at Sam’s Auto Repair.
“We both understand how Sam determines what he needs to charge to be fair to his customers yet still make a fair profit,” Sue commented.
“But we are both a little nervous about how to help your friend,” Andy said.
“Let me tell you a little bit about Matt Hartman, the business owner,” Patty said. “He and I went to Tech together. He was a year ahead of me. He worked for a few years and then got his MBA at Ivy U’s Tucker Business School. He was number one in his class. Then he worked for about 10 years at Delle and Tush Consulting and saved enough to buy the electronics assembly company he named Hartman Electronics.
“He’s only owned the company for a few months, so he doesn’t know much about SMT assembly, or even that much about running a small business. Oh, and he was my boyfriend for a while back at Tech,” Patty added with a chuckle.
Andy and Sue asked a few more questions as Patty pulled into the parking lot.
As soon as they walked in the door, they saw a handsome, athletic man run up to Patty. He gave her a hug and a brief kiss on the lips. Patty seemed flustered as Matt exclaimed, “Patty, it’s great seeing you. You look terrific.”
Still a bit flushed, Patty said, “Matt, this is Sue March and Andy Connors, the two students I told you about.”
Sue expected Sam to shake her hand, but instead he gave her a hug that Andy later described as too familiar. Matt also shook Andy’s hand and gave him a big bear hug.
A bit taken back, Sue and Andy looked at Patty. She mouthed the words, “That’s just how he is.”
After a few moments of exchanging pleasantries, Patty shared the story of Andy and Sue’s rise through the ranks at Ivy Benson Electronics and their success at getting their associate degrees through night school. She also mentioned their acceptance as juniors at Ivy U and their recent experiences at Castellanos Electronics, where they held SMT workshops for employees.
“Needless to say,” Patty said, “they are two of the most impressive students at Ivy U, and it is my privilege to be their mentor.”
Sue and Andy stood there with gaping mouths. Finally, Andy whispered to Sue, “Is she talking about us?”
“Yes,” she whispered back. “There’s no one else in the room she could be talking about.”
“Matt,” Patty said, “why don’t you tell us about your new project?”
“We have been asked to perform final assembly of some units for the FAA,” he replied. “It involves taking PCBs that we assembled on our SMT lines and connecting the PCBs together with wiring in a housing about the size of a small refrigerator. We estimate we’ll need 20 operators and five supporting engineers.”
Matt then gave them a tour of the facility, responding to their questions along the way.
“I pay the operators about $20 per hour and the engineers $40 per hour,” Matt said. “I figure a 40% premium is fair. So, in the future I plan to charge $28 per hour for the operators and $56 per hour for the engineers. Does that seem about right?
Sue and Andy stared in disbelief at Patty.
Could Matt make a profit with these new rates? What did Patty and the young couple recommend?
Note from Dr. Ron: I’m sure that many readers think that this post is just a work of fiction. After all, no one could be as clueless as Matt. As with all my posts, this one is based on a true story.
This column originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of SMT007 Magazine.
05-31-2023
Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this episode, Sue and Andy get to visit an SMT provider and offer help with the owner's cost-estimate problem. But are they up for the challenge?
View Story05-03-2023
Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this episode, Sue and Andy have just returned to the Upper Valley of Vermont and are out for a walk. Let’s look in on their conversation.
View Story03-15-2023
Let’s check in on Andy Connors and Sue March at Castellanos Electronics after Maggie and John’s decision to buy the company. In our last episode, Sue was working on solutions to minimize solder defects that have been categorized in a Pareto Chart, whereas Andy was working on creating a training program to develop some process engineers and implementing an improvement plan developed by Chuck Tower and José Castellanos.
View Story02-22-2023
In this latest installment of Maggie Benson's Journey, Sue, Andy, and Chuck summarize their findings and identify an action plan to continue making progress on their goal to bring Castellanos Electronics up to standard. Chuck entrusts his development plan to Andy, while Sue again joins forces with Carlos and Miguel to keep chewing through the long list of manufacturing process defects that need resolving. Tune in next time to find out what Andy has decided to include in his SMTA Certification training program, as well as whether Sue's suggestions successfully lead to a decrease in HIP.
View Story02-01-2023
This month in the ongoing saga of Maggie Benson's Journey, Sue March and Andy Connors choose to remain in Mexico after the purchase of Castellanos Electronics to help Chuck Tower coordinate the company's transition. Using their previously drafted improvement plans, the group splits up to address the efficiency and defect-related issues they'd identified during their earlier tours of the factory. Sue teams up with Carlos to propose a solution to the company's biggest quality issue—solder joint graping—while Andy meets with the four promising candidates recommended to the process engineer training program
View Story11-30-2022
Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this month's column, Andy and Sue prepare to take two journeys—one to Mexico to tour a facility that Maggie is interested in buying, and one of a more personal nature that will mean a more permanent union between them both. It's an exciting time in the lives of these two young professionals.
View Story10-18-2022
Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this installment, Maggie's employees Andy and Sue finish teaching their pre-calculus class, then get "called into" Maggie's office where Professor Patty Coleman and others are waiting. What they learn truly comes as a shock and something they never expected.
View Story10-05-2022
Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this episode, Maggie's employees Andy and Sue continue to quiz one another as they prep to teach the company's SMT 101 workshop. Their discussions include some of the basic math and assembly concepts that are needed in today's shops.
View Story08-30-2022
Indium Corporation's Ron Lasky continues this series columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate the continuous improvement in SMT assembly. In this installment, Maggie and her fiance John note the positive changes at Ivy-Benson Electronics and attribute the change to two employees who really stepped up to the challenge of learning.
View Story07-27-2022
Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this column, Ivy Benson employees Andy and Sue continue to quiz one on another on algebraic equations that they need to know in PCB assembly. While Andy feels outwitted by Sue, his own knowledge is improving. Will they make a good team?
View Story06-27-2022
Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this column, Ivy Benson employees Andy and Sue continue to test each other on the basics of surface mount technology as they prepare for certification. Lasky points out there are no sources of material to help a technician or engineer new to electronic assembly to learn the basics.
View Story06-01-2022
Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this month's column, two of Ivy Benson's young employees respond to Maggie's challenge to improve their assembly knowledge and skills. Does it have the desired effect?
View Story04-27-2022
Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Dr. Ronald C. Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this episode, Maggie and John meet with her grandfather, who sold the company to Maggie, to talk about how it's going.
View Story03-16-2022
Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. In this installment, the new owners have improved the facility and improved morale, but previous owner Ned Price isn't sold on the changes, and has a lot to say about it.
View Story03-02-2022
Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. The last column concluded with these questions: Will BE buy Ivy Electronics? What will the price be? What is in the action plan? What is 5S and the 8 Mudas?
View Story12-15-2021
In this fictional account of Maggie Benson, Indium Corporation's Ronald C. Lasky explores continuous improvement themes. This month, after reviewing the company's success with improving uptime, he introduces the idea of a Pareto chart which shows the yield fallout by failure mode types.
View Story11-24-2021
Editor’s note: Indium Corporation’s Ron Lasky continues this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly. Maggie was working in her office, deep in concentration, when she was startled by the phone ringing. It was her mentor, Professor Patty Coleman from Ivy University. Maggie reached to answer the phone. “Hi Prof…,” Maggie started, “Patty.” “Well, Maggie, we still need a little work on you calling me Patty,” Patty said, chuckling. “I am calling to thank you again for taking my family to Mount Ascutney to view the Milky Way. Rob, our boys, and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t consider that the new moon might be the best time for viewing. It was also neat to see Venus. I was unaware that Venus is in the Western sky after sundown because it is closer to the sun than the earth.”
View Story10-27-2021
Ronald Lasky continues his series on continuous improvement through this series with fictional character Maggie Benson. Here, he explains that with increased productivity, each unit produced is cheaper to make and you have more of them, so profits increase exponentially.
View Story09-15-2021
As the story continues, Maggie meets with Professor Patty Coleman, and finds something new to chat about. Back at Benson Electronics, the team is meeting about uptime on the line. What's new there?
View Story08-11-2021
In this fictional account meant to discuss continuous improvement methods, character Maggie Benson reviews the urgency of improving uptime on the lines with one of her employees.
View Story07-12-2021
In this fictional account, Maggie Benson's time on the golf course with her professor leads to important improvements at the factory.
View Story06-03-2021
In Part 2 of Dr. Ronald Lasky's fictional account of Maggie Benson, Benson Electronics learns of the change in ownership, while Maggie and John evaluate making some changes.
View Story05-05-2021
Indium Corporation’s Ronald C. Lasky has launched this series of columns about Maggie Benson, a fictional character, to demonstrate continuous improvement and education in SMT assembly.)
View Story
