WorldWide Drilling Resource

17 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® MAY 2018 Smaller is often Better by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC When it comes to almost everything, the conventional wisdom is “bigger is better” or “more is better”. While this is the case with some things, it doesn’t always work in practice. Take the automobile, for example. Autos started out relatively small, but over time, became bigger and bigger. Then when the “gas crunch” (rapidly rising prices for gasoline) hit in the early 1970s, the demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars increased. So there were more and more small cars being sold for a very simple reason: Most people could not afford to buy fuel for a big car which got only five or six miles to the gallon. The same goes for aircraft. Over time, aircraft became bigger and bigger with the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380 being some of the largest flying objects the world has ever seen. But recently the trend has reversed somewhat: Boeing no longer sells the 747 for passenger service because smaller, two-engine aircraft costs the airlines less in fuel and maintenance. Just because something is possible to build, doesn’t mean it is practical to build and maintain. There are several reasons why cars got bigger. At first, the carmakers did not have the technology to make smaller cars economically. With advancing technology, came improved materials and manufacturing practices, such as plastics replacing metal parts, making cars lighter and less expensive to manufacture. Also, years ago there was a general attitude that if something wasn’t big and heavy, it was cheap and undesirable. We have gotten past this for the most part. One place where the “smaller is better” philosophy has really taken hold is electronics. The size of the components on a printed circuit board has shrunk dra- matically over the years to the point that some parts are about the size of a grain of pepper, and they require microscopes just to identify what they are. Why is this? Because of cost. Smaller size = less material needed to make them = less cost. Also, smaller sized parts save space on the printed circuit board which, again, equals less cost. The only time larger parts are used is when the mass is needed to help dissipate heat. It’s always good practice to use only the material needed to perform a certain task, and no more. A good example of this is a temperature and humidity sensor/display we bought a few weeks ago. We got this thinking we would get just a temper- ature and humidity readout (display), and no more. When we got home and opened the package, we found we got more than we bargained for - but not in a good way. This device also had a minimum and maximum temperature, and humidity “log” which remembered the minimum and maximum measured values until it was reset. This would have been acceptable if the minimum and maximum values were clearly identified and differentiated from the actual values, but they were not. This, along with an instruction sheet which was only slightly larger than a postage stamp, didn’t help matters any. So this was a case of a product which worked well in terms of actual performance, but did not work well in terms of design and cus- tomer interface. It ’s a very common problem just about everywhere. So a good question to ask when attempting to design a product is: “Do we really need that?” The product doesn’t have to be dull and spartan in appear- ance, but neither should it contain extra components which do not directly add to the product utility. In other words: If in doubt, leave it out. your customers will thank you. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Open the Doorway to all the Event Photos during MWWDA 2018. To see all the photos from this event, go to www.worldwidedrillingresource.com or click here. Feel free to download at will and print the photo(s) of your choice. Compliments of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . Photos are copyrighted and released for personal use only - no commercial use permitted. The “More” is Safety! mudandmorellc.com • 350.366.5126