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From: john@anasazi.UUCP (John Moore)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: $1288 ashtrays
Message-ID: <257@anasazi.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Aug-85 11:01:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: anasazi.257
Posted: Tue Aug  6 11:01:48 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 23:02:51 EDT
References: <532@wjvax.UUCP> <730@vortex.UUCP>
Reply-To: john@anasazi.UUCP (John Moore)
Organization: Anasazi, Phoenix Az.
Lines: 35
Summary: Office Equip has Wierd Specs Too

>to occur with heavily spec'd military hardware.  But many of these
>overruns are on things like office stools and other equipment that
>isn't even for military use--just plain old office equipment that
>wasn't heavily spec'd.
>
I once worked on a Navy contract to design new shipboard office equipment.
The specs were truly unbelievable and unreasonable. It was not "just plain
old office equipment" - it was desks that had to withstand a 20mm hit,
etc. There was no reason that the Navy couldn't go out and just buy
ordinary office furniture, but rather than do that, they had miles of
specs that were unrelated to what was needed, but had to be met. Example:
The foam padding on the arm of some chair (chair, office, ordinary (??))
had to be of a specified type of foam (which was not particularly desirable,
but had been used for umpteen years). The padding had to be .1325 +- .05
inches thick (or some similar spec).
	By the way, with the intercession of Admiral Zumwalt, we were
allowed to waive the specs. The table and desk we delivered cost only
about $250,000 (prototypes). They were never ever used for anything.
	We earned the $250,000 - we put out that much work. It certainly
was not our fault that the navy was so stupid about their procurement.
>There's a question of honesty.  I think many contractors take the
>P.T. Barnum view--"There's a sucker born every minute."  They seem to figure
>that if the purchaser is so silly that they don't realize they're being
>fleeced, the seller doesn't have any responsibility to point out the problem,
>or the cheaper places simple parts and tools could be bought.
>--Lauren--
	Welcome to capitalism! It still works better than the alternative! The
military's insistence on squeezing profit everywhere they can, and auditing
everyone to death on trivia, leads to a desire by suppliers to make their profit
where they can. The fact that the dollar outweighs ethics in some people
is just human nature - the ruble outweighs ethics in USSR, also.

	John Moore (Compuserve VETS SIG "LCB" Member)