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Seth Godin Laser Cutter Revolution Family Crib Business Transformation

Name: Seth Godin Laser Cutter Revolution Family Crib Business Transformation
Uploaded: 2025-10-20T12:45:07+00:00
Duration: 56 s
Channel: Francis Wade
Description: In this anecdote, the speaker recounts how his father, who ran a century‑old hospital crib company in Buffalo, struggled with massive inventories of…

20 Oct 2025 · 1 min

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In this anecdote, the speaker recounts how his father, who ran a century‑old hospital crib company in Buffalo, struggled with massive inventories of spare parts needed for each bed or mattress pad. To eliminate the clutter and inefficiency, the father invested a million‑dollar laser cutter—a risky but strategic move. By setting up the cutter at the end of each shift, the factory could produce the exact parts needed for the next day, enabling a just‑in‑time workflow. This transformation cleared out the football‑sized, junk‑filled facility, demonstrating how a single technology investment can streamline operations, reduce waste, and modernize a legacy manufacturing business.

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My, my dad, for many years before he passed away, ran a hospital crib company in Buffalo, New York. My sister runs it now. And when he took it over, it was, uh, the company was over 100 years old. Uh, but when he took it over, the amount of crap in that factory, because every time they made a bed or a mattress pad or anything, they had to get all the spare parts for it, all the nuts and the bolts. You know, it's, it was a giant facility filled to the top with stuff. And he figured out that if he bought a million-dollar laser cutter, which was a big stretch for him, he could set it up at the end of the shift on Monday, and Tuesday morning they would walk in and the parts they needed for Tuesday would be waiting for them. It made each piece. And so this entire, you know, football-sized place filled with cruft, no longer needed. You just make the parts you need for today.