There have been times when my company has had almost more work than we could handle and there have been other times when work came in slowly. Either way I always kept marketing my company and called my network of friends and acquaintances to keep our name fresh in their minds and to find out what they were working on.
Chatting with people you pick up things that you might not hear otherwise. More than once these contacts have led me from one project to another.
For instance, once we were working on packaging for a floor wax product so I needed to rent an ultrasonic device. The device had two metal anvils that would come together many thousands of times a second creating instantaneous heat between the metal parts to seal plastic film very quickly and safely.
While I was learning about the machine, I found that plastic moving between the anvils could also be bonded to itself and I knew that I could perhaps solve a problem for an old friend of mine.
We had done many projects for a snack food company in Texas and after talking to a friend there, I knew they were trying to find a new way to seal their snack food bags and save money if they could.
Up until this time ultrasonics were used primarily in the automotive industry to cement instrument panels into cars and in other applications where the parts were not moving in relation to each other. The experiments I did made it possible for moving films to be adhered to each other “on the fly.”
After convincing myself this new process would be beneficial to my friend’s company, I phoned him. At the time they were using glue to seal their snack food bags. The old glue machines had to stop and go repeatedly to apply the glue, set the glue, and then move on to grab additional film to repeat the process.
I urged him to try the new system I had been experimenting with. He agreed and had one of their machines shipped to us for the tests. I had designed a special unit to be added to their bag-making machine. The unit was very small, weighing only 8 ounces, and attached very easily to the existing machine. It slipped along the plastic film upon its entrance to the machine, quickly melted the film, instantly pressed it together and sealed the bags as they passed through.
We got a patent and started turning out sealed bags at twice the speed it used to take to glue them and for a lot less money. My client was pleased.
Even though this happened many years ago, the lesson is still important in business today. Always listen for the kinds of problems your clients are trying to solve.
Article – Copyright 2000 Stanley I. Mason. Syndicated by ParadigmTSA
