Reply to post: Been there, done that.

Been there, done that.

Tim Worstal - "Sure, we also get great leaps in efficiency when someone thinks up an entirely new way of achieving the same task, but it is a bit of a puzzle as to why it just seems to happen, almost all on its lonesome."

To put it simply, it's because the company accumulates people with years of experience and who know what they're doing. You know, the sort of people the MBAs are anxious to get rid of these days because they cost too much money?

Tim Worstal - "GTAT just didn't appear to have any of this learning-by-doing knowledge regarding how to actually run banks of the machines that it constructed. It may have been pretty shit hot at machine making but not at machine running."

This is not unusual. Knowing how to build a machine isn't the same thing as knowing how to use the machine plus organize all the other activities around it. The organization, knowledge, and type of personnel needed for the machine building industry aren't the same as for the industry which makes the products which the machine produces. This is aside from the fact that running the machine is usually just part of operating the business as a whole.

It's the same principle as to why mechanics don't necessarily make great race car drivers, and why software developers don't necessarily make great system administrators. Great in-depth knowledge of one aspect of a process doesn't automatically grant equal knowledge of the much greater breadth of experience required in the rest of it.

I've seen this elsewhere in other types of manufacturing industry. I've even seen a company which made solar cell manufacturing equipment try to go into the business of manufacturing solar cells themselves. It didn't turn out well because they simply didn't have the knowledge and experience of running a lean, efficient, manufacturing operation which involves doing a lot more than just running their machines.

There are companies which do encompass machine building and product manufacturing. However, these tend to be completely separate operations which just happen to be owned by the same conglomerate. The two groups typically operate at arm's length and may often not like each other much - (been there and done that).