My Sewing Machine Rant

[fredk]

This may not add much but may amuse yaw'l

This goes back a long time, pre-internet days. Time when we used fax machines

I needed some parts for my old Cadillac, a '78 Coupe DeVille. I sourced the parts from a breaker in Alaska, of all places.

They sent the parts out afternoon their time via FEDEX. The parts were in Northern Ireland about 36 hours later!

That's the good part. The parcel then spent the next 25 days in FEDEX depots

FEDEX had two depots in N.I. One serving the west of the country and one serving the east side. My parcel spent over 3 weeks being transferred between the depots

When someone had drawn a line on the map of N.I. to show which area each depot delivered into the person had used a broad tip marker [sharpie?] and the thick line had gone right through and over my house! [I was shown the map later] On one side my neighbour was delivered by FEDEX West and a neighbour on the other side was delivered by FEDEX East, but neither depot could decide which of them I came under.

What didn't help was that nearly all the FEDEX workers were not N.I. people so they had no idea that either depot could have delivered. It was resolved when they got in a part-time driver who knew me. Officially, he had me 'redirect' my parcel to my place of work then he delivered it there the same day

Eventually FEDEX closed their depots and handed deliveries to another courier company, which had a single depot for the whole country

[Tequila]

@Frodo  holy crap!

[JHLeatherwood]

On 4/9/2022 at 3:46 PM, Frodo said:

Have patience my friend

here is tracking from one of my ordeals.  This thing bounced around like a basket ball 

If you want your package found. submit a claim.  That will get some attention 

 

The buyer can't submit a claim - the courier hasn't delivered it. Only the shipper can submit a claim for lost or damaged merchandises if it hasn't been accepted by the buyer.

 

[Spyros]

5 hours ago, fredk said:

This may not add much but may amuse yaw'l

This goes back a long time, pre-internet days. Time when we used fax machines

I needed some parts for my old Cadillac, a '78 Coupe DeVille. I sourced the parts from a breaker in Alaska, of all places.

They sent the parts out afternoon their time via FEDEX. The parts were in Northern Ireland about 36 hours later!

That's the good part. The parcel then spent the next 25 days in FEDEX depots

FEDEX had two depots in N.I. One serving the west of the country and one serving the east side. My parcel spent over 3 weeks being transferred between the depots

When someone had drawn a line on the map of N.I. to show which area each depot delivered into the person had used a broad tip marker [sharpie?] and the thick line had gone right through and over my house! [I was shown the map later] On one side my neighbour was delivered by FEDEX West and a neighbour on the other side was delivered by FEDEX East, but neither depot could decide which of them I came under.

What didn't help was that nearly all the FEDEX workers were not N.I. people so they had no idea that either depot could have delivered. It was resolved when they got in a part-time driver who knew me. Officially, he had me 'redirect' my parcel to my place of work then he delivered it there the same day

Eventually FEDEX closed their depots and handed deliveries to another courier company, which had a single depot for the whole country

Fred, guess how much things have changed since then!  (spoiler alert: not a lot).

I used to be in the waste industry until recently, working for a multi-billion company that has a massive fleet of garbage trucks that collect waste in many countries.  Big massive customers like the MacDonalds/Councils/Tescos of this world.  Now, a garbage truck is very much like a school bus, right? It starts from the depot and does the same route every day, same time, same stops, picking up the same rubbish bins.  Think of it as a loop on a map with dozens or even hundreds of pick up points along the way.  And every depot has multiple loops originating from it, because every depot has 50-100 trucks working every day.

So what happens when you have a new big customer with multiple new rubbish bins to be picked up in multiple locations?  How do they decide which loop they will assign them to? Some would be located directly on those loops, but some would be further out which means some routes would need to be stretched out a little, or a lot.  They also have to think about availability because pick up times have to align with the truck schedule, you can't pick up early in the morning a bin that the customer tells you they will be rolling out later in the afternoon.   And you have to think about the size of the bin because some trucks have a system that only picks up small size bins like your residential wheelie bins, other trucks only pick up medium, others only big skip bins, and so on.  And you have to think about the type of waste because you can't mix recyclables and general garbage in the same truck.  And you can't overload a route with too many pick ups because by law a driver can only drive so many hours a day, and a truck can only carry so much waste.  And you have to do all your calculations by day of the week, because bigger bins are not picked up every day, and you can't pick up on Mondays a bin that is only available on Tuesdays. And all that before you even start thinking about traffic, tolls and road works.  You have to find the most efficient way of doing those pick ups because trucks/drivers/fuel can get very expensive very quickly.   

So it is a bit complex, it's like solving a giant Sudoku. I can hear you saying "Thank God we have computers and all that intelligent software these days!"  Right?  Right?

Nope :D

What they do is just give the problem to a guy.  Usually a 60 year old guy with decades experience, usually a former driver himself.  And he locks himself up in a room for a week with a "do not disturb" sign outside and thinks about it.  Basically no computers are involved, just a printed map, red pen, pencil, eraser and a big cup of coffee.  That's it man, that's all they got in the year of our Lord 2022. 

I imagine that's not very different than how Xerxes's generals did it 2,500 years ago.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Spyros

[Sheilajeanne]

Wow, that's very interesting, Spyros!

Reminds me of when I was doing visiting nursing. One of the most important jobs was the coordinator that assigned the calls to all the nurses. Our company covered a very large geographic area, the company had to reimburse us for mileage, and some of the calls were timed calls, such as antibiotics that had to be given within a one hour time frame.  The coordinator also had to take into account where each nurse lived, and try to assign calls that weren't too far from her home.

I did not envy those people their jobs, but they were VERY good at it!  I may have forgotten the names of some of the nurses I worked with, but I still remember the one coordinator because she was so very good at her job, and sympathetic to the stresses the nurses were under too. Things could change very rapidly throughout the day, too. You could start a day out with 3 or 4 calls and end up with as many as 13!

My husband got very used to me telling him, "I'll be home for supper when I'm done. And NO I have no idea exactly when that will be!"

[fredk]

22 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

. . . One of the most important jobs was the coordinator that assigned the calls to all the nurses. . . .

I did not envy those people their jobs, but they were VERY good at it! . . .

Unlike the co-ordinator my sister had when she was a home-visit carer. That co-ordinator never allowed time to get between the homes, eg, 08.00 to 08.30 at Mrs Smiths, 08.30 to 09.00 at Mr Jones et cetera but it was at least 10 minutes to get from one to the other. The co-ordinator even had her going to homes far and wide whilst other carers did visits within the area my sister had to pass through, going into the areas best served by those other carers. Remember those Venn diagrams at school? with overlapping circles? like that

[Spyros]

1 hour ago, Sheilajeanne said:

I did not envy those people their jobs, but they were VERY good at it! 

Yeah some of them are, others not so much... and when you find a good one they're really hard to replace, it takes a lot of experience combined with a mathematically organised brain.  But it also requires lateral thinking sometimes to step out of boundaries or make a business decision to solve a difficult logistical problem.  I don't think artificial intelligence will ever be able to replace some jobs like that, not in our lifetimes anyway.

[Sheilajeanne]

I agree Spyros!

[jrdunn]

7 hours ago, Spyros said:

Fred, guess how much things have changed since then!  (spoiler alert: not a lot).

I used to be in the waste industry until recently, working for a multi-billion company that has a massive fleet of garbage trucks that collect waste in many countries.  Big massive customers like the MacDonalds/Councils/Tescos of this world.  Now, a garbage truck is very much like a school bus, right? It starts from the depot and does the same route every day, same time, same stops, picking up the same rubbish bins.  Think of it as a loop on a map with dozens or even hundreds of pick up points along the way.  And every depot has multiple loops originating from it, because every depot has 50-100 trucks working every day.

So what happens when you have a new big customer with multiple new rubbish bins to be picked up in multiple locations?  How do they decide which loop they will assign them to? Some would be located directly on those loops, but some would be further out which means some routes would need to be stretched out a little, or a lot.  They also have to think about availability because pick up times have to align with the truck schedule, you can't pick up early in the morning a bin that the customer tells you they will be rolling out later in the afternoon.   And you have to think about the size of the bin because some trucks have a system that only picks up small size bins like your residential wheelie bins, other trucks only pick up medium, others only big skip bins, and so on.  And you have to think about the type of waste because you can't mix recyclables and general garbage in the same truck.  And you can't overload a route with too many pick ups because by law a driver can only drive so many hours a day, and a truck can only carry so much waste.  And you have to do all your calculations by day of the week, because bigger bins are not picked up every day, and you can't pick up on Mondays a bin that is only available on Tuesdays. And all that before you even start thinking about traffic, tolls and road works.  You have to find the most efficient way of doing those pick ups because trucks/drivers/fuel can get very expensive very quickly.   

So it is a bit complex, it's like solving a giant Sudoku. I can hear you saying "Thank God we have computers and all that intelligent software these days!"  Right?  Right?

Nope :D

What they do is just give the problem to a guy.  Usually a 60 year old guy with decades experience, usually a former driver himself.  And he locks himself up in a room for a week with a "do not disturb" sign outside and thinks about it.  Basically no computers are involved, just a printed map, red pen, pencil, eraser and a big cup of coffee.  That's it man, that's all they got in the year of our Lord 2022. 

I imagine that's not very different than how Xerxes's generals did it 2,500 years ago.

I really imagined something involving a map on the wall, a handful of darts and a blindfold.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by jrdunn
Double post

[Handstitched]

On 4/8/2022 at 8:20 PM, Handstitched said:

I'm still waiting for some sealer & hardware  from Queensland ( in the east of Oz )

Yey !! It arrived ...woo hoo !!  nothing to do with sewing machines I know  . I lodged a complaint in the ' lost or missing parcels page' of our ever "trusty postal service" ...I put the word " urgent" in the complaint...today it magically appears at my P/O . 

Amazing 

@Tequila any updates on your machine? 

HS

Edited April 12, 2022 by Handstitched