Patti Engineering Insight

I was able to sneak out yesterday afternoon and get 18 holes in at Orchard Lake Country Club thanks to an invitiation from a good friend. Fall in Michigan is one of my favorite times to play as the courses are empty because most people have packed up the clubs for the season. The fall colors make the couses look beautiful (although searching for a ball amongst leaves can be a  challenge). You also never know if it is going to be your last round for the season or not, kind of like Golf Lotto. When it is your last round, you probably will not play in the state again until April.

I love to golf, although the game boggles me and I am not a very good. I take lessons and I practice, but I still have trouble busting the century mark. I can count the times on one hand I have shot lower than 90.

I also have had to deal with a big slump: After getting to the point in 2005 and 2006 where I was breaking 100 about 40% of the time my game fell apart. I went 27 straight rounds not busting 100 and raised my index by almost 9 strokes. I am now seeing light at the end of the tunnel, as I have shot under 100 in 4 of the 5 rounds since breaking the streak. My key to playing better has been reducing my back swing, improving my chipping, and concentrating on the back of the ball with an 80% swing.

I have been lucky to play some great courses in my lifetime and I have put together a dream 18-hole list from the courses I have had an opportunity to play. The rules for the list were as follows:

• The hole numbers had to match the actual hole numbers on the courses I played.
• It must be a traditional golf course with five par 4s, two par 3s and two par 5s on each side.
• I could only use one hole from each course.

The rules made it a little difficult to put the list together and I was not able to use my absolute favorite hole for each course. Over the next few weeks I am going to post each hole. I will talk about the hole, the course and the experience. If anyone wants to give me an invitation to another great course, let me know, I can always update the list

I just finished a good book and recommend it for anyone who is a baseball or golf fan. The title of the book is “Ty and the Babe” by Tom Stanton. The Book is about Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth and details their relationship from the point that Babe Ruth came into the league (9 years after Cobb) until the time of Babe Ruth’s death in 1948 (Ruth died of throat cancer at age 53, while Cobb lived until 1961 – age 74). Of the 18 comments on Amazon.com, 16 people give the book 5 out of 5 stars while the remaining 2 gave it 4 stars.

The book is about a lot more than baseball and you will realize that Stanton did some outstanding research for the book. The last third details a 1941 3-city golf tournament between the two that raised money for charity. The one thing that resonates throughout the book is that the modern day perception of Ty Cobb is overblown. Tom Stanton does a great job of explaining this on his web site.

So, Ty Cobb wasn’t such a bad guy?

Cobb was nicer than most people think. He was not the Satan of baseball. He was not, as one historian has described him, the “single black mark” on the game. Cobb was smart, articulate, and socially polished, and he could be charming and winsome. Contrary to his image, he did have friends. Over the years, I’ve come upon many people who knew Cobb and have wonderful memories of him. He was always extremely competitive, and in his early days he was quick to use his fists. But I can’t think of a more maligned figure in baseball history. A fan from his time wouldn’t recognize Cobb based on how he’s portrayed now. In his day, he was admired and respected, which isn’t to say he was an angel.

Why did his image change?

Much of how we view Cobb was framed by writer Al Stump, who spent several months with Cobb near the end of his life. By that time, Cobb was in the grips of alcoholism and cancer. He was a bitter man who had buried two adult sons. After Cobb died, Stump captured that bitterness in an ugly portrait of him for a 1961 magazine story. Eventually, that story evolved into a book, which spawned the brutal 1994 Cobb movie. It’s been all downhill for Cobb since his death. I’m hoping Ty and The Babe helps balance our perception of Cobb. I’m thinking of nicknaming my book tour “The Ty Cobb Redemption, Reformation, and Resurrection Tour.”

The book is a quick read. At the beginning of each chapter are some great pictures, many of which are from the Ernie Harwell collection at the Detroit Public Library. My favorite picture comes from the epilogue on page 234. It is the from final meeting between Ty and the Babe on September 28, 1947 when Ty flew to Yankee Stadium as part of a former player’s fund raising effort for Babe’s foundation as he was battling cancer. The picture has Ty’s arm on Babe’s shoulder as a sickly looking Ruth’s eyes are wet.

Do yourself a favor, if you are a baseball (or golf) fan, go pick up the book.

My 5-yr old son plays rec league soccer on Saturday Mornings. He absolutely loves to play. Throughout the week he asks me “how many more days until soccer?” His favorite position is goalie, and for a 5-yr old, blessed with my lack of foot speed, he does a pretty good job.

The league doesn’t keep score, as most leagues for small kids don’t.  The ironic thing is, is that pretty much every kid on the field keeps the score in his or her head. My son’s team ran into a real juggernaut this past Saturday. The opponent, lead by a little girl in sequins named “Rachael,” lambasted my boy’s team 9-1 (yes, as a parent, I kept track on the sideline). The first thing my son said to me after the game was “Daddy, we lost”. I responded, “That is OK, I am proud of you, you played your best the whole game.”

Now the people on the other side of the field were also keeping score in their head (though their count was not the same as mine), and during the game older brothers and sisters are yelling out to their siblings “you guys are winning 11-1, keep going.”

Now in the old days when I was a kid we kept scores at these games. Keeping score taught us some valuable lessons. For instance, it taught us that sometimes, in fact 50% of the time in team sports, you are going to lose. If you lose and you try your best, then it is OK. You will come back the next time and try again. You also learned that when you won, you handled it with dignity and you did not taunt your opponents. My politically incorrect view is that there is nothing wrong with teaching 5-yr olds important life lessons about winning and losing, and by not keeping score, we are cheating them.

I am a NASCAR fan. I don’t like to admit it around my golf buddies, but I have always had an affinity for most forms of auto racing.

In 1988 I tried racing myself at Trail-way Speedway in Hanover, PA. In six career races in the Street Stock Class with my #64 1976 Monte Carlo I won a grand total of $55 making 3 final events and once finishing as high as 12th. My cousin Matt Hoff, who provided the garage and tons of support, once finished 2nd in the feature race. He finished 2nd to “Dizzy Dean” Renfro who is a racing legend in the area whose career dates back the early 1950s and had one career NASCAR start.

My 5-year old son Sammy has become a huge NASCAR fan as he has lots of 1:64 (matchbox size) and has learned about all of the drivers. Much to my chagrin, his favorite driver in NASCAR is Kurt Busch (who is my least favorite). Last Friday I took Sammy to MIS to see the practice and qualifying.  After initially wanting to go home during practice (too loud despite headphones on for ear protection), Sammy settled down and enjoyed the day. Getting a bunch of 1:64 scale cars helped. We also got to meet a fraternity brother of mine, Mike Wheeler, who is an engineer on Denny Hamlin’s Fed Ex car. Mike said he works 80-90 hours a week as he is at the track Thursday-Sunday. He is really busy in the Shop Monday-Wednesday preparing for the next race.

Here are my reviews of the seven tracks I have been to ranked from best to worst:

1) Bristol Motor Speedway (Night Race – 8/22/98 – Mark Martin Winner)

This was the 1st ever race I attended, what an awesome experience. Bristol is a .533 mile track that has high banks and is completely surrounded by stands. This race track is like sitting in Michigan Stadium with a race track in the middle. You MUST wear ear protection as this place is loud! You will have trouble spotting the leader as he will catch the back of the pack within 20 laps. It is best to focus on your favorite car and follow it.

My experience: We went with 2 other couples and had to stay about 90 miles away. My buddy and I sat about 10 rows from the track on the backstretch. It was like watching a Saturday Night Race at a local track as you could see the drivers through their front window as they came off of turn 2. They were really fighting their steering wheels. Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Mike Skinner finished 6th and 7th and I was shocked at how hard they raced each other. There was obviously no love loss between these 2.

2) Daytona International Speedway (2/18/2001 Daytona 500 – Michael Waltrip Winner)

Daytona was built in 1959 and is a great speedway. There are tons of amenities around the track including the Daytona USA museum. You want to sit high at this track so that you can see the other side of the track. The Back Stretch seats are cool as turn 2 gets narrow which causes close racing, then the cars fan out and literally drag race down the back stretch until having to narrow down for the entry to turn 3. This speedway is the 2nd most famous speedway in the US (behind Indy). This speedway is also very dangerous as there have been 28 racing related deaths at this track.

My experience: Yes, I was there when Dale Sr. died. He died on the last corner of the last lap of the race in an accident that did not look that bad from my vantage point just past the start finish line. It was Michael Waltrip’s first NASCAR victory (you will find that theme happening to me as half of the races I have been to have 1st time winners).  I was flipping between Waltrip’s radio and the TV broadcast on my scanner. My cousin Matt was listening to Dale Sr’s channel and could tell right away that he was severely hurt. The racing was tight the whole way and there was a horrible accident by Tony Stewart on the backstretch that had me praying for everyone’s safety. Amazingly no one was seriously hurt in that accident.

3) Texas Motor Speedway (4/2/2000 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Winner)

Texas Motor Speedway was built in 1996. It has all the amenities of a modern day arena with comfortable seats, luxury suite, and great sightlines. It is 1.5 miles long and the infield is sunk in such a way that you can see all the action. This is a very fast race track with tight racing. Access to this track is very easy as it located right off of I-35. The most famous race at this track was the one that was never ran as on 4/29/2001 CART canceled the Firehawk 600 two hours before it was supposed to start because of dangerously high speeds and driver’s complaining of dizziness because of severe G-Forces.

My experience: This was Dale Jr’s first cup victory. It was also Adam Petty’s first and only race in the premier division of NASCAR (He would die 5 weeks later in a practice accident in New Hampshire). I got Garage Passes thanks to an uncle whose company was a NASCAR sponsor. Garage passes are really hard to get (even more so today). This definitely was a cool experience. After the race we got back in the garage (I’m not sure we were supposed to). NASCAR dyno tested the top 3 finishers and I have several minutes of video of the #8 on a dyno machine.

4) Richmond International Raceway (9/7/2002 - Matt Kenseth Winner)

Richmond is an old track with its first NASCAR event in 1953. It has changed configurations throughout the years and has been a 3/4 mile tri-oval since 1989. The track is not particularly easy to get to. It also does not have the amenities of Texas or Daytona. What it does have though is good racing action though. The whole track is easy to see, and the racing is tight (though not nearly as tight or wild as Bristol).

My experience: Sterling Marlin had a hard crash on the 8th lap of this race. He was the season points leader at the time, but that wreck coupled with a wreck 3 races later at Kansas cost him his best chance at a championship. Michael Waltrip had the field down almost an entire lap after some pit strategy, but got wrecked on a restart. After the race, my Buddy Eric and I drove all the way back to Michigan after dropping my cousin Matt off in MD.

5) Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Coca Cola 600 – 5/28/2000 - Matt Kenseth Winner)

Lowes (formerly known as Charlotte Motor Speedway) is the home track of NASCAR as most of the teams have their shops in Charlotte area. It was first built in 1959 and having hosted the longest race (600 miles) annually since 1960. The track is easy to get to and has good sight lines. It is the same length as Texas (1.5 miles), but not as fast. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the busiest sporting venues in the country hosting 380 events per year.

My experience: My same uncle who set me up in Texas, went to this race with us. For the Busch Race, I got to ride in a pickup that drove the drivers around the track during introductions. You really get a feel for the banking at a track when you are on it. Matt Kenseth got his first career win (a recurring theme with me), but I would be lying if I said that I was at the track to witness it. There were 2 rain delays during the race and we didn’t wait out the 2nd one. We saw the end on TV at the Bar of the OMNI Hotel in downtown Charlotte.

6) Michigan International Speedway (Qualifying Only 8/17/2007 - Jeff Gordon Pole Winner)

MIS hosts 2 races per year. It was first built in 1968 and having hosted 2 races every year except one since 1969. The track has horrible sightlines. No matter how high you sit, you can’t really see the backstretch as the campers in the infield block the view. It is quite a bit away from any interstates making it a hassle to get there. The track is wide and all of the drivers like it which usually leads to a pretty boring race. Open wheel racing is exciting here (at least on TV) as there is tons of speed and plenty of room to pass.

My experience: Summed up at the top of this post.

7) Pocono Raceway (7/25/99 - Bobby Labonte Winner)

Pocono hosted its first Cup race in 1974. It has hosted 2 races every year since 1983. The track is located in the Pocono Mountains, which used to be a popular honeymoon spot (Pre 1950s). The whole area is full of run down motels and the track fits right in as it is also ran down and has no amenities. The seating is bench style, with no leg room. The pitch of the stands is not very steep meaning shorter people will have trouble seeing over the crowd in front of them. The racing is good as track has a unique triangular shape with three different turns varying in radius and banking. The front stretch is the longest straightaway in the sport and is wide enough to allow plenty of passing.

My experience: We set in the “club level” tickets which meant that you were at the top of the stands under the overhang where they served you really bad food. Saturday was the ARCA race and Blaise Alexander, who was a 23-year old local guy from Central PA won the race. He was killed in an accident involving Kerry Earnhardt less than 2 years later at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Bobby Labonte won the NASCAR race by a fairly wide margin of 9 seconds. It gave him a sweep at the track for 1999.

I have created a My Space Page. I was inspired to do this after checking out Jason McCoy’s Myspace Page. Jason is a business partner, friend, and a great engineer. Jason is a world traveler who can speak many different languages.

My site isn’t nearly as nice, but you can check it out if you would like.

I have noticed that I get an awful lot of friend invites from attractive young females.  Jason warned me that I have to be very careful on who I accept as friends, as this is a way to spam myspacers.

Internet security still remains a constant concern.  With that in mind, and at my wife’s request, there are no pictures of our 2 wonderful children. My song is from Duece, a band that my nephew Eric is in.  When they hit it big, I am sure that his inquiries from attractive young females will be real.

Background: 

In 1964 IBM released the System/360 which was the first “large” family of computers to use interchangeable software and peripheral equipment. I believe this was the birth of the modern day I.T. department.

In 1969 Modicon introduced the “084″ PLC, this was the birth of modern programming based operations engineering.

Ever since then there has been a war between I.T. and operations engineering. If a company is to survive the in the 21st century, that war has to end!

Personal History: 

In the late 80′s, I was a Co-op student and a young engineer working at General Motors Truck and Bus in Baltimore, MD. At that time, I fell in love with plant floor control systems. Being assigned to the Body Shop was lots of fun as the place was full of Cincinnati Milacron Hydraulic Robots, Allen-Bradley PLC-2′s, and other automation. I learned tons about floor level control systems.

About the same time I started, Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was purchased by GM. EDS supported the front office business systems at the Plant. They would occasionally make the 1/2 mile walk from the front office to the Body Shop. The EDS people would look like fish out of water with their 3-peice suits and total lack of understanding of automation and production systems. We did not relate with the front office I.T. people and they did not relate to us plant rats.

None of the production systems in the Body Shop had any ties to the front office business systems.  Paper manifests were used for scheduling and quality control was done with a clipboard. Somehow we were able to crank out 250,000 M-Vans a year and make the General some money in those days.

Today:

Today, the smart manufacturers and distributors realize that I.T. and Operations must work seamlessly.  The I.T. people must be cognizant of the challenges the operations people face (multi-shift operations, little downtime, high turnover and uneducated workforce). The operations people must also be cognizant of the I.T. challenges (need for change control, thorough testing, task prioritization, many systems interacting together).

If an operational process is running efficiently, it will be a paperless process, and production information and results will be available instantaneously. This creates the real time information that allows management, quality, scheduling, and shipping to improve.

My business, Patti Engineering, has defined itself as a company that can work with both I.T. as well as operations. We can program the most complicated real-time control applications on the floor, but we can also do database design for enterprise wide data tracking systems. The concept of I.T. and operations engineering working together synchronously is a brave new concept for many companies. But if those companies want to survive into the 21st century, they need to get on board and end the war.

I am a transplant to the state of Michigan. One place in the state I have fallen in love with is Mackinac Island (pronounced MACK-in-aw). The Island has an 8 mile perimeter and is located within sight of the Mackinac Bridge which connects the upper and lower peninsulas. The Island prohibits the use of motor vehicles. The only vehicles on the Island are emergency vehicles. To get around, you must walk, get a taxi (horse drawn), or use a bicycle.

My brother-in-law David and his wife, Barb, have a vacation home on the Island and have invited the whole family up the last 3 years to shack up with them one weekend (there were 23 of us this past weekend). The weekend has been one of the highlights of our recent summers. An annual baseball game has been played at the Great Turtle Park and I am not so proud to report that my daughter and wife each matched my hit total of 1 (and my side, the Tigers, lost to the Yankees 9-8 in extra innings).

80% of the Island is owned by the State and controlled by the Mackinac State Historic Parks. Fort Mackinac, now maintained by the Park, was controlled by the British in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The State maintains the Governor’s summer residence on the Island and I have it on good authority that Governor Granholm attended services at St. Ann’s Catholic Church on the Island this past Sunday.

There are a little over 500 year round residents on the Island. In the winter, when the Ferries are no longer running, the only way to get off the Island is by air or by snowmobile once the lake has frozen (The residents use snowmobiles in the winter to navigate the Island). The Island has its own public school with less than 100 students k-12.

There are three 9-hole golf courses on the Island. Having played all three courses I highly recommend the Wawashkamo Golf Club. Although it will never make the golf digest top-100 list, it has a unique feel as it is an original links style course dating to 1898. The Grand Hotel is the most famous Hotel on the Island, but having spent my 5th wedding anniversary there in 1996, I found it overrated and overpriced. I recommend renting a room at Stonecliffe which is located on a beautiful piece of property far enough out of town to be peaceful.

When you stay on the Island, you will find that a ride through the center of the Island is pretty awesome. You will struggle biking up to the center, but the ride down is awesome. Be careful of coming down too fast by the Grand Hotel, as my nephew once got a speeding ticket on his bicycle! You will find the bars on the Island are pretty lively at night and a moonlight run around MI-185 is a great way to work off those 2 beers from Horn’s Bar.

Hopefully you will also have the opportunity to enjoy the Island the way my family and I have.

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I have seen large companies stress over which software package or suite they are going to standardize on for months. For the ERP system they may choose Manhattan Associates, MFG/PRO, or Peoplesoft. At an MES level the question may be Iconics, Simatic IT, or Cimplicity. At the plant floor level they will agonize on whether to use PC based control (such as SteeplechaseVLC) or a traditional PLC approach, whether Rockwell, Siemens, or Mitsubishi.

Often, these same companies will spend months of time and resources to select a package, then select an integration partner in a couple of days with limited research and limited due diligence, thereby treating the integration as a commodity.  Take this as gospel:  this solution is going to come off poorly unless properly integrated.

The Package Supplier is often not a good resource as the common sales pitch is “our stuff is so easy, anyone can program it,” or “we have our own integration team” (which mean they will charge 50% more for personnel who has 50% less experience and will never address or use any other solutions to work around the shortcomings that any package has).

An independent systems integrator is the key to your program being successful. If you are looking at the MES and plant floor level, I would highly suggest using a certified control systems integrator. By being certified, the company has been audited to ensure that they are meeting the best practices and benchmarks of the CSIA. The CSIA puts out a great resource for companies that will be selecting and working with an integrator. The document is completely free and titled “Guide for Selecting and Working with a Control Systems Integrator”

A good Integration partner will be concerned about your overall success as well as the success of the project. They will understand the need for the ERP, MES, and Floor Level Systems to appear seamless and support all phases of the business. Often the good integration partner will question and suggest ways to improve the business. They will also document the planned system before any code is written through means of a detailed functional specification.

Good Luck on your next project, and remember selecting the right integration partner is as important or more important than selecting the package.

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?