A small company in Kansas was one of the first to build digital watches. They wished to be fully independent of out side suppliers and as they had experience building quartz crystals for the military they started a production line for quartz watch crystals. They also had a policy of putting managers with out previous experience in charge so they would not be limited by preconceived notions of what doesn’t work. After a year of not quite making the process work they contacted a consultant from Texas. He looked at our process and said the best we could do was $3 each and we should throw everything away and buy the crystals from the Japanese for a $1 each. We said we knew if he came and worked with us we could match the Japanese. For a high price the consultant agreed to come to our plant and rebuild our production lines and promised to be making quality crystals in six months, at $3 each. Sure to his promise we were making the crystals for $3 at the end of six months. The consultant took his money and went back to Texas. We threw all the equipment in the dumpster and started buying from the Japanese, for $1 each.
Carl.