Patti Engineering Insight

I may be suffering from Internet Addiction. With that in mind, I did something yesterday that I had not done in forever. I actually went a whole day without ever getting on-line. It was tough to resist the temptation to get online last night, but I managed to spend Sunday June 24, 2007 without logging on.

I couldn’t help wondering whether I had received any important e-mails from work (but had a matter been really important, I always have my cell phone – and I did not cheat by checking e-mail on my phone). I had to go the day without checking the Slammin’ Sammys, my rotisserie baseball team (In the old days, 10 years ago, we got a fax service one a week and it arrived with stats that were 5 days old. Now, thanks to CBSsportsline.com, we can get instant updates to the stats while games are in progress). I also missed some of my other favorite sites like www.drudgereport.com, www.detroittigersweblog.com, and www.youtube.com.  

What did I do yesterday? Well I golfed 27 holes (18 at 7:30 in the morning in less than 3 hours and 9 at 5pm with Sammy, my 4 year old). I did a big honey-do by moving a yard of top soil. I watched parts of the Champ Car, Indy Car, and NASCAR races (I love racing, but it is a sport that lends itself to TIVO, as you can limit your watching to only the interesting parts and the end of the race). I also watched the Tigers complete an 8-1 road trip with a 5-0 pasting of the Braves.

After going a day off-line it feels like my blood pressure went down. I am thinking that I should start instituting an off-line day every 2 weeks or so. Can I do it? I don’t know, my addiction may be hard to break. �

On Memorial Day weekend in 2000, Patti and I went on a weekend trip to Charlotte, NC to watch the Coca Cola 600 (Nascar). Thanks to some airline problems, we arrived in Charlotte without our luggage.

Because we need some clothes for the next day and it was late in the evening, we went to the only place open, a Wal-Mart. I remember thinking at the time of purchase how nice the clothes looked and what a cheap price I had paid for the outfit (a golf shirt and khaki pants).

The outfit did not last me through Labor Day. After two washings the shirt was faded and frayed and the pants had holes worn in them. So in the end I got a good looking outfit for $25 that lasted 2 months.

I could of bought a nice Ashworth Shirt and a pair of Dockers Khaki Pants for $125. These items typically last me about 3 years. To emphasize my point, let’s assume that they only last 2 years.

So for the Wal-Mart outfit, my cost was $12.50/month. For the more expensive outfit, my cost is $5.22/month. Even if I the Wal-Mart outfit last 3 months, my cost is still 45% more than the expensive outfit.

I sometimes have a customer call me to complain about our hourly rate. They say they can get a cheaper rate elsewhere (which no doubt, they can). They will pay $50/hour to some guy working out of his garage who will take 1000 hours to complete a job. Often, even if this completes the job, he will not be able to be found in 6 months time. 

Are they getting a better value when we will take only 400 hours to complete the job (and yes – we will comlete the job) and will be around for any service, upgrade, or other related issues that may come up in the future?

Watching the Tiger game last night and seeing Curtis Granderson hit 2 triples was awesome. The Triple maybe the most exciting play in baseball (save the inside the park HR).

Granderson Has 12 Triples in 59 games. Projecting that out, he is on a pace for 33 triples. Since 1950, exactly 5 times players have had 20 or more triples, they are:

• 1957 – Willie Mays – 20
  1979 – George Brett – 20
  1985 – Willie Wilson – 21
  1996 – Lance Johnson – 21
  2000 – Christian Guzman – 20

The all-time record for triples is 36 by Chief Wilson in 1912. The Tiger record is Ty Cobb with 24 in 1911 and 1917.

In addition to Granderson, Magglio Ordonez has 29 doubles in 59 games. Projecting that out, he is one pace for 80 doubles.

The all-time record is 67 by Earl Webb in 1931. The Tiger record (and 4th alltime) is Hank Greenberg with 63.

No one has hit 60 doubles since 1936, altough Todd Helton, Carlos Delgado, Garrett Anderson, Criag Biggio, Nomar Garciapara, and Lance Berkman have all been 55+ in the last 10 years.

Update: Curtis Granderson hit 11 triples in 103 games after this post not keeping up his record pace. He did end the season with 23 triples, the most in the Major Leagues since 1925 when Kiki Cuyler hit 26.  He actually appeared to have a shot at more, but only hit 2 triples after August 24th (34 games).

Ordonez ended the season leading the Major Leagues with 54 doubles, a great total to be sure. He kept up his doubles pace for a while after this post by hitting his 34th double in the team’s 70th game. Over the next 44 games though he slowed considerably by hitting only 5 doubles. Maggs lead the Major Leagues with a .363 batting average. He would have been MVP except for the fact that the richest player in baseball was in a contract drive.

June 3, 1991 was the official first day of business for Patti Engineering (Actually it was first called “Patti Engineering Services”, but the last word was officially dropped when we incorporated in 1995).

I started as a solo-shooter contractor at GMFanuc Robotics (later, Fanuc bought out GM’s half, so today it is Fanuc Robotics). I had a lot of knowledge on a product called the Smart Screen (by Total Control Products) having written my senior thesis on the product and later working for the company for 9 months.  Fanuc had just standardized on using the TCP Smart Screen in their original PAINTWorks System. 1991 was a slow time and Fanuc did not have any openings at the time, so Don Kijek and Gordy Geheb (both still Fanuc employees) encouraged me to start up my own business so that they could utilize my talents.

I figured when I started Patti Engineering it would last me through the summer until I could find a permanent job. 16 years later, I am still working that summer job.

I immigrated to Michigan almost 20 years ago. But my wife, Patti, is a born and bred Michigander who grew up in Flint the youngest daughter of Don and Jean Fridline. Don and Jean each spent 30+ years working at GM while having 6 sons and 2 daughters. All 8 children settled in Michigan, 7 of them living within a 30-minute drive.

Patti still tells me stories of how nice it used to be in Flint. Good jobs were easily had. It seemed like everyone worked in the “shop” where American Cars were made with pride.

Well, those days are over. No matter how nostalgic we get, or how many movies we make about the “evil” empire GM relocating factories to the south and/or south of the border, nothing is going to bring those jobs back. GM is in business to make money. That is or should be the goal of every company in America. So don’t expect this post to be another “Roger and Me.”

I went to my niece’s going away party last night. Patti and I have 13 nieces and nephews on her side of the family. All 4 who are old enough, have graduated from college. Of those 4, only 1 remains in the state. The other 3 have started their lives in New York, Colorado, and Florida.

Is what we are seeing in our family a trend? With me being an engineer, I like to examine the data. The following shows the percentage of US population living in the state of Michigan. I got all of my data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

• 1970: 4.34%
• 1980: 4.09%
• 1990: 3.74%
• 2000: 3.53%
• 2006: 3.37%

Now let’s look at the all important category of ages 20-29. These are the entrepreneurs, the new home buyers, the wealth builders, and the individuals that will create the future jobs. Look at the same numbers by that age group:

• 1970: 4.20% (96.8%)
• 1980: 4.21% (102.9%)
• 1990: 3.63% (97.1%)
• 2000: 3.39% (96.0%)
• 2006: 3.21% (95.3%)

The second number is the percentage of 20-29 divided by the total percentage. Anything over 100% is good. The further below 100% the more relative percentage of 20-29 years olds you are losing. You can see the trend is getting alarmingly worse. Tons of talented kids that are getting educated by the great Michigan Schools (Kettering, Michigan Tech, yes and even U of M) are leaving this state.

What can be done?

Well, I am not going to pretend that I have the answer, because I don’t. What I do have though is an opinion:

I feel that raising taxes on services as our Governor has recently proposed is not the answer. Michigan is competing with every other state in the union for 21st century jobs. Taxing services only drives young entrepreneurs out of this state faster. I also feel that the big 3 are not going to lead a turn around. They are losing market share just like the state.

Being an engineer, I would like to think that technology could really be the key to turning around this state. The key technology that will drive jobs and spur growth in the next generation is energy (especially concentrated on alternate forms). There are some great engineering schools in this state. Anything that the state can do to foster these kids to go get high tech engineering degrees and foster business and entrepreneurial pursuits in this field would help redefine the great state of Michigan for the 21st century.