Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] New TriX
From: Craig Schroeder <craig@craigschroeder.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 09:53:28 -0500
References: <200304241334.h3ODY8G31836@www.worry-free.net> <3EAA1C1E.9060904@bluewin.ch> <007701c30bef$2f22b980$6401a8c0@oemcomputer>

Regarding the Kodak factory/equipment shuffles of late..... 
 FWIW....This is bits and pieces from related coated film industry 
anecdotal chatter.  

There is a tendency in the coated product industry of developing 
equipment to process much narrower webs of coated product and have them 
tightly controlled for quality and consistency.  The old days had 
monster facilities that fit our image of factories of legions of 
employees, mechanical controls, high reject rates and difficult to 
control solvent gassing and air quality controls, etc.  What took crews 
of hundreds to manhandle, clean, feed and control now runs with extreme 
precision with 8-10 person crews, extreme automation in function and  
material handling with the added efficiency of little waste.  The 
smaller equipment is easier to set-up for specific product to feed ever 
tightening ideas of minimum stocked inventories (just-in-time mind set) 
and quicker reaction to short term needs of specific product production. 
 In the old days, once you had those monsters finally tuned and running 
right on a product, you made extremely large runs because shut down and 
start up were such monumental tasks.  I know of one old monster coater 
that was so daunting to load/align that it had a film web loaded for 
over 20 years using continuous leaders and splicing!  

I think Kodak's recent changes are a combination of changing production 
techniques, inventory philosophies and the ultimate reality that film 
consumption is on a downward trend.  All of this requires a leaner, more 
flexible manner of production and doesn't indicate abandonment to me.

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In reply to: Message from "Steve LeHuray" <steve@streetphoto.net> ([Leica] New TriX)
Message from "Nathan Wajsman (private)" <nathanw@bluewin.ch> (Re: [Leica] New TriX)
Message from "Don Dory" <dorysrus@mindspring.com> (Re: [Leica] New TriX)