The speed of success

By John Loos

Published in FFJournal.net

In a fast-paced metals industry, it can pay to slow down and examine product development

No sane businessman sets out to make a terrible product--or build an inferior company for that matter. Yet defective products and companies exist within virtually every industry, some even being successful in spite of oblivious acts of self-sabotage.

According to Michael Pfeifer, president of Industrial Metallurgists LLC, Northbrook, Ill., what separates the companies plagued by product recalls and failures and the companies that produce top-of-the-line goods is the amount of time and energy they're willing to put toward research, development and product testing.

"How do you define product success?" asks Pfeifer. "In my mind, a successful product meets the target cost to make it, it has a good market share, it launches on time, and it meets its performance and reliability requirements. If you can't achieve those goals, then why bother even spending the time making your product?"
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