Planning & Strategy.
- An excellent overview of Costco's business model. Costco makes almost double Amazon's revenue per employee, and more than double their profit per employee. Similarly, their revenues and profits per square foot and per store are more than double Walmart's and Target's - all while running on a 3% operating margin and paying their employees remarkably well.
- Mercedes' new EV won't have a front trunk, because skipping it allows them to make the vehicle on existing assembly lines & therefore transition to EVs more easily.
- Another reminder that it's not *just* lack of funding that's holding US mass transit back.
Making & Manufacturing.
- A (slightly silly but totally worth fifteen minutes) tour of a pouch cell battery factory.
- An engineering overview of disposable diapers.
- A good, detailed video of making carbide inserts.
- A remarkably thorough and readable ten-part series (I recommend you start at the beginning rather than skipping to the actual manufacturing chapter) on how Hammerhead engineered & manufactured a touch screen bike computer.
Maintenance, Repair & Operations.
- The Space Shuttle's thermal tiles dissipate heat so quickly that they can be handled only a few seconds after being removed from an oven.
- Using MJF, MJP, and lost wax to refurbish old N64 controllers.
Distribution & Logistics.
- Amazon ordered 20k Mercedes vans, which they will then sell to fleet management companies who will then lease them to small-time delivery contractors. For comparison, UPS owns about 119k vehicles and FedEx's contractor base has about 60k Ground vehicles and 100k Express vehicles.
- How the World Trade Center's memorial lights confuse (and kill) migratory birds, and how simply turning them off every once in a while saves them.
Inspection, Testing & Analysis.
- After a low in 2013, the number of NYC-owned motor vehicles is back up to its pre-Bloomberg Sustainability Plan level of ~30,000.
- Drew Austin on Amazon's attitude towards consumerism. Related, a renewed campaign to revert to an earlier definition of monopolism that considers factors other than whether a company's actions benefit consumers.
- A side-by-side comparison of the features of the iPhone XS Max and the MacBook Pro 13.
Tangents.
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