Posts in category: General

It once seemed outrageous to think a ship made of heavy steel could ever float on water. Imagine the reaction if a painter told you a contraption of wood could let you toss yourself from any height and drift safely to earth.  The parachute was one of the many inventions from the always-bubbling brain of Leonardo da Vinci.

The invention was way ahead of its time. In the 15th century, a good day was avoiding The Black Death or Typhoid Fever. Nobody had time to be constructing a pyramid of wooden poles with sealed linen between them and “hoping” they land like a little bird. “I’ll take my chances with the Diptheria, thank you very much.” Leo would be long gone before anyone actually made a practical parachute. The late 1700s were a more “devil-may-care” time, it seems. But even then, there really wasn’t a big need for parachutes.  

That story would repeat itself many times with many of da Vinci’s inventions. The idea preceded the time. But by their very nature, new ideas usually do come before the need arises.

What ideas might be hiding away in your mind’s filing cabinet? 

Maybe the only difference between you and da Vinci is the act of writing it down. The act of literally putting a pencil on a piece of paper can activate those sleepy neurons and turn a flickering notion into tomorrow’s da Vinci-chute. How and when it will be used may not be apparent right now. But one thing we know for sure, those ideas aren’t doing anybody any good locked away in your beautiful brain.

At Custom Powder Systems, we see our jobs as solving problems that haven’t yet happened. Bins and lifts and gloveboxes and containment systems are made to fit your facility. Having done this more than a few times, we’re able to see around the corner and find solutions to things before they become an issue.    

As for Leonardo’s bold design: He got it right! In June of 2000, Adrian Nicholas of Great Britain dropped from a hot air balloon 10,000 feet in the air. Experts told him (as they told da Vinci) he would jump to his certain death. Instead, Mr. Nicholas came back to the earth beneath a 187-pound contraption that was just a sketch for 500 years, saying the ride was actually smoother than a modern parachute.    

We’d love to talk with you about any current challenges you may be facing. Please call us at (417) 868-8002 or fill out the short form below:

We are an idea company. When we first meet customers, they are always a bit baffled…perplexed…flummoxed even. Our job is to take their (seemingly) impossible challenge and come up with the best way to solve it. We love love love being asked to do the things that haven’t been done before.

We’ve been sharing with you stories of great inventions and businesses that literally started on a blank cocktail napkin. Today, we want to give you your blank napkin:

What will you do with it? What can you do with it? From the Gettysburg Address to Southwest Airlines, great ideas just need a little space. Entire forests have grown from a tiny acorn. Like a growing plant, ideas need air, room, and nutrients. If you neglect ideas and hide them away, they most certainly perish.

But a blank page can be a tad daunting. When you’re told “just come up with ideas…the sky’s the limit,” you may find yourself paralyzed by over-choice. Coming up with ideas is like a muscle. With work and practice, you can find yourself coming up with ideas like a post-impressionist artist!

Introducing your new muse:  Alex Faickney Osborn.

Osborn was a mid-century ad-man (the “O” in BBDO). He’s the one to thank for  “brainstorming.” That’s his baby. Many think brainstorming is “just throwing ideas out there and seeing what sticks,” but brainstorming is a process. A system.

What’s the goal?

It’s important to know where you’re going before you start. Gather as much information as you can and identify what you’re trying to accomplish. Whether you’re brainstorming by yourself or with a team, this will help keep your ideas on track.   

Agree it’s just ideas

The first thing you must do is agree that you’re just coming up with ideas. NOT solutions. This might be the hardest part. Our busy brains want a solution, so each time an idea is presented, it’s very natural to shove them through the logic-filter to see if it’s a “good” idea or a “bad” idea.  It’s neither. It’s just an idea. You absolutely must separate the generation of ideas from the solution. We’re not there yet.

Solutions

Now that you have your ideas, you can work on your solution. Ideas and solutions don’t play nice together. The right side of your brain is playing with possibilities, while the left side of your brain is trying to herd a bunch of crazy squirrels. Each side resents the other and when they start fighting, you get stuck. Just as you kept ideas separate from the solution, keep the solutions away from new ideas. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in rabbit holes you never expected.

Test this thing

Now you can implement the solution. A solution that came from a goal to come up with ideas that lead to the solution. Did it work? No? Now you refine the goal. Then you come up with ideas. Then you apply the ideas to a solution.  

Alex Osborn worked with Professor Sid Parnes and developed the “Creative Problem-Solving System,” or “CPS” (Hey! Nice initials!)

“Of all the gifts we have as humans,” said Professor Parnes, “the one that stands out, giant-like above all the rest, is our ability to be creative. It is responsible for all the progress we enjoy today.”

Their work led to the founding of The Creative Education Foundation, a non-profit organization developed to “spark personal and professional transformation by empowering people with the skillset, toolset, and mindset of deliberate creativity.”

The Osborn-Parnes Method, loosely outlined above, goes like this:

Clarify:  This includes setting a goal, gathering information, itemizing your resources and knowing any challenges.

Ideate:  Now you’re generating ideas that are connected to your clear goals. Don’t stop. As many as humanly possible, without judgment.

Develop:  This is where you turn ideas into solutions. Evaluate, improve, and select the ideas that fit.

Implement:  Explore acceptance and identify resources and actions that will support the implementation of the selected solution(s).

This comes from the firm belief that everybody IS creative in some way, and everybody HAS the capacity to learn creative skills. Should the implementation not work for some reason, refine your goals and restart the process.

Because it is a process.

Have a happy, and very creative, new year. Here’s your napkin.

Necessity is the mother of invention, but when three million gallons of liquid hydrocarbon explodes in front of you, waiting for mother to call isn’t an option. While the event was cataclysmic, it inspired the invention of the variable flow fire nozzle now used by fire departments around the world.

Volunteer firefighter Clyde McMillian arrived at The Standard Oil Company in Whiting, Indiana on the morning of August 27, 1955. Just after sunrise, the nation’s largest oil refinery erupted in a fireball so huge, residents thought it might be the end of the world. One witness said “I thought the sun had exploded,” while others were certain that Russia had finally dropped the atomic bomb on the United States. The blast shattered windows nearly 50 miles away.

McMillan was fighting the blaze to the best of his, and his fire hose’s, ability. When a tank of naphtha exploded, the nozzle on his hose did not have a spray pattern wide enough to protect him. His only choice was to drop the hose run. McMillan suffered third-degree burns on his back, legs, and arms. He was down, but he wasn’t going to let this happen to another firefighter.

Simply put: The nozzle was ineffective. The spray was inconsistent, and couldn’t compensate for unpredictable water pressures. After recovering, Clyde McMillian founded The Fire Task Force in Gary, Indiana. This new company focused on one thing: water.  

The Fire Task Force eventually became Task Force Tips, and grew into a trusted international company when McMillian began scribbling on a cocktail napkin. On May 10, 1968 he drew a diagram for a variable-speed, or “automatic,” nozzle. Similar to an automatic transmission in a car, the correct nozzle is automatically chosen as the speed of the water flow increases or decreases. 

The original napkin sketch is on display in the Task Force Tips Fire Museum.

Success for his new company wasn’t immediate.  The first nozzle wasn’t sold until 1970, and by 1972 the business was still housed in the McMillian family basement. But good ideas find their way. By 1976, they were a $250,000 company (equivalent to $1.13 million today).

It’s a trait shared by our engineers at Custom Powder Systems. The ideas may seem fanciful at first, but the ultimate test is not what people think of the idea… but rather if the idea becomes useful. Some of our finest ideas have come from an off-handed comment while brainstorming, but good engineers know to file these ideas away. Sometimes on an app, sometimes in a file cabinet, and sometimes on a napkin.

Finding solutions is what we at Custom Powder Systems do each day. We are at our best when challenged by the things that other companies think can’t be done. We are always inspired by great thinkers like Clyde McMillan and appreciate good ideas can come to all of us at the most unexpected times.

No, that’s not a typo.  No, we didn’t push the wrong button.

Instead of a holiday once a year, what if we gave a little “thanks” …every day?

At Custom Powder Systems, we’re a building full of scientists and engineers.  We like to see methods and proof. This is why we’re delighted to discover that science has confirmed what many of us already knew:  Being thankful is good for your health!

The University of California and the University of Miami published a report called “Counting Blessings Instead of Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life.”  That’s quite a mouthful to simply say what Charles Dickens so eloquently summed up:

“Reflect on your present blessings, on which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

Whether you call it “counting blessings,” “saying thanks,” or “expressing gratitude,” many health professionals agree:  Being thankful can be just as powerful as any drug in your happiness. In “Counting Blessings Instead of Burdens,” researchers found that “inducing a state of gratefulness through the self-guided gratitude exercises led to some emotional, physical, or interpersonal benefits.”

What this, and Charles Dickens’ quote tells us is that our worries seem bigger because they are the rare standout. We tend to notice dramatic contrasts. If you really analyze things around you, you’ll find most of your day is filled with good things with the occasional “ugh” thrown in there.  Because the “ugh” is the oddball, it stands out.

None of this is to minimize the many struggles we all have but to re-organize our thoughts to highlight the good. According to Harvard Medical’s publication “In Praise of Gratitude,” proving a direct cause-and-effect is difficult, nonetheless “most of the studies published on this topic support an association between gratitude and an individual’s well-being.”

What might happen if every day you deliberately noticed the things you’re thankful for?

• A warm cup of coffee
• The shoes on your feet
• A ride to work
• A place to work
• The friend who made you laugh
• The person who held the door for you
• Lunch break
• A warm bed
• Friends, family, and mentors
• A toe-tapping song on the radio
• Your faith and beliefs
• Pie
• Kids laughing
• Hugs

What would you add to the list?  

Think of it as “preparing for thanksgiving.”  Keep an ever-growing list that you can turn to, and remind yourself of the things you’re grateful for. 

Some recommendations from Harvard University include:

• Write a thank-you note
• Keep a gratitude journal
• Count your blessings
• Pray
• Meditate

Even simply saying a mental “thank you” when you think of something or someone in your life that you’re grateful for can make a real impact on your happiness. Try spending as little as 90-seconds each morning and note as many things you’re thankful for as possible. It can be as simple as a bowl of cereal, or as grand as your family and friends.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the impact it has, and it’s guaranteed to have no bad side effects.

We’d also like to take this moment to give a big THANK YOU to you. The customers we get to serve each day is truly a blessing and one we never take for granted.  Thanks for being who you are and for trusting us each day.

We hope each day can be a day of thanksgiving for you.  

As we continue to develop our reputation for aseptic isolation, we’ve learned a thing or two about containing negative pressure… and its many forms. In our shop, we use this focus as a regular reminder to consider and address the other kind of negative pressure: Stress and frustration and, specifically today, burnout: the negative pressure most recently featured in the news.

The World Health Organization is updating its definition of burnout and adding it to the ICD-11, which classifies diseases. While the new definition of burnout will be known as a syndrome, it ties burnout to negative pressures such as “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

If you’ve been feeling exhausted at work lately, or detached from your daily tasks, it’s time to look at burnout as the cause.

The subject of burnout gets discussed at length in certain fields – healthcare, teachers, and police officers all come to mind. But it should come as no surprise that engineers, workers, and even support staff run the risk of burnout as well.

CNBC points out that 67 percent of full-time employees felt at least some type of burnout. Those feelings come with real-world consequences as well. Burnout has been attributed to diabetes, heart disease, GI issues, and even early death.

There are symptoms that employers need to watch out for as well. Negativity, cynicism, and reduced efficacy can impact a company’s moral and its bottom line when there’s increased use of sick time.

The best time for a burnout intervention is before it happens. EngineeringJobs.com lays out seven acts that can keep you fresh and excited about your job. The article is interesting in that it points out wider options than the standard “take a break” or “use your vacation days” that we normally hear.

At Custom Powder, we’ve seen a direct correlation between our team’s wellness and our Experience Modification Rate (EMR): the number used by insurance companies to project future chances of risk based on past injuries. The lower the EMR, the lower premiums will be, and the lower the costs involved. We pass those (not insignificant) savings onto our customers.

The standard EMR for our industry is 1.00.

Our EMR is 0.82 — significantly below the industry standard.

Keep the negative pressure in your life contained, and to receive regular ideas and inspiration about workplace wellness and other critical components to the Art of Engineering, sign up for our email newsletter.