The new car has a problem already. I would have cried, but my makeup would run. In for a penny, in for a pound. I’ve sent a whiny email to my mother, and now I’m drinking wine and eating crackers.
I would like to introduce you to the concept called “the bathtub curve”. It’s the graph of how much trouble a piece of equipment might be over its extended lifetime.
When a machine is new, it is not trouble-free. New machines are often beset by woes, but they quickly diminish as the machine gets tuned in and comes up to working speed.
This is the “fill” portion of the bathtub curve, the place where the water controls are; a steep gradient which rapidly diminishes to a very low point. Then a long period of normal usage obtains, the nearly flat bottom of the curve.
Finally, as the machine ages and wears normally, troubles tend to increase in number again, a slow rise that looks like the “backrest” part of a bathtub. Eventually of course, the machine may wear out and need to be replaced, and then the process starts all over again.
This is the bathtub curve of normal mechanical problems.
So there are three rules about machines:
Do not expect a new machine to work perfectly first time out of the box.
Never expect a new machine to work perfectly first time out of the box.
Make sure you’ve read and implemented the instructions regarding setting up and operating your machine, and that you are familiar with its minor differences from you experienced before.
Boy. I’m glad I didn’t read that until this morning. I would have gone out and gotten a box of Pink Drink and some Mustard-Onion pretzels and commiserated with you from 2500 miles away!!!
I bet we could almost make up a new language by texting while under the influence, eh?