> The machine took 18 months of adjusting before it worked reliably
That doesn’t tell the story of the overall ROI. After 18 months of shakiness were those folks able to go do other work? Did the work pay for itself on a 5 year timeline? 10 years? Achieving reliability is huge - did the company spin that for PR?
It was 18 months of somebody working on it full time plus people being flow out from the manufacturer.
From memory once it was going it still didn't live up to all the hype. It worked about as well as the 30 year old machines next to it and required a minimum wage person (ie me) to operate it (plus a fitter for anything technical).
The company I worked for went out of business 10 years later.
This is the sort of machine I'm talking about (although a lot nicer and more uptodate than the ones I used. Faster cycle time too)
That doesn’t tell the story of the overall ROI. After 18 months of shakiness were those folks able to go do other work? Did the work pay for itself on a 5 year timeline? 10 years? Achieving reliability is huge - did the company spin that for PR?