The Lack of Spares ... Good or Bad

[Jeff K.]

For the FP motor, if someone could find out which vehicle it came from, everyone will probably be able to contact their relatively local service center to get a spare or two. When I call them, they give me a hard time saying that they are trying to help me, but they need the part number from the vehicle it came from. I just tell them that it didn't come from a vehicle, and it came in the KOP and what we are. She just goes back to asking which vehicle it came from...

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Jeff K.

For the FP motor, if someone could find out which vehicle it came from, everyone will probably be able to contact their relatively local service center to get a spare or two. When I call them, they give me a hard time saying that they are trying to help me, but they need the part number from the vehicle it came from. I just tell them that it didn't come from a vehicle, and it came in the KOP and what we are. She just goes back to asking which vehicle it came from...

A service center told someone from a team that FIRST bought every single motor of the correct model (This is from the FP thread thats been going on for a few days)

[Jeff K.]

Originally Posted by Cory

A service center told someone from a team that FIRST bought every single motor of the correct model (This is from the FP thread thats been going on for a few days)

Yeah I didn't see that until after I contacted them. If one service center knew about it, then shouldn't all of them be aware? Instead of making me have to explain 3 times how I did not get it from a vehicle. Oh well.

[artdutra04]

While the concepts of constricting the design constraints is a good idea, since it can lead to a better end product (since it requires a lot more thought in the process), not having spares is a bad idea.

What if a computer company like Dell or Apple or Lenovo told their engineers that there would never be any way proclaim a spare battery or hard drive for the laptop they were designing? Even though they might be exceedingly careful with their design, I guarantee you that there will be a small percentage of batteries or hard drives which would fail prematurely, due to any number of reasons which might be beyond the engineer's control.

Stuff fails in the real world, and if you do not design accordingly you won't succeed.

[AdamHeard]

I've worked at Northrop Grumman (a major aerospace company) for several years. From what I've seen there, they would never use a product or part to which no spare or replacement was available.