"Can you do it?" Dexter asked the candidate.
Malcolm Engels answered, "Of course, I can. You're talking about a single cup coffee maker."
"I'm talking about a single cup coffee maker, that will last for twenty years," Dexter said.
Malcolm Engels was in his mid-thirties and had been working as an engineer in a large company that produced coffee pots as one of its product lines. He had been there for over fifteen years working on a variety of coffee makers. His resume looked impressive. It covered just about every aspect of coffee maker design.
"Ten, twenty, or thirty years – it doesn't matter. You get the right heating element that will last. You include a replaceable brewing basket. You'll need an I-R sensor to make sure the cup is in place. Add in a simple water sensor and you're done," Malcolm said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Give me your thoughts on the product," Dexter said thinking that the young man was being a little over optimistic in his answer.
Malcolm smiled at the question. "I see a machine with a broad base that is exceptionally stable. I hate it when a coffee maker tips over because you're doing something or even just bump into it. It needs to have a little heft to it so that it's bottom heavy. That heft can also provide the necessary thermal insulation to prevent any fire hazards.
"It will need a simple flat platform that fits into the base, where you'll set the coffee cup. That way, you don't have to worry about breaking the coffee pot. It'll have to include an overflow catch basin because people might add more water than their cup holds. That's not a real big problem. What you don't want, is steaming hot water flowing out where people can get burned.
"The on/off button should be right in the front where you can see it. While brewing it should be red. When the water chamber is empty, the light should go out and the heating element turn off. We could add an alarm, but I don't really see the need for that. That would be an executive decision. We are talking a single cup coffee maker and the person will probably be waiting for it to finish brewing.
"I see the top as being funnel shaped so that it is easy to pour the water into the water chamber without spilling any of the water. It should have a cover on a simple hinge so that dust won't fall into the water chamber and clog up the plumbing. After twenty years, dust will be an issue. Open the cover, add water by pouring it out of your coffee cup, and close the cover. Allow excess water to run off into the catch basin in case the person tries to overfill it. Neat, clean, and no mess.
"The brewing chamber can actually be an individual component. We could provide one that takes those K cups, one that takes coffee pods, and one that takes ground coffee out of a can. I don't see any sense requiring people to use one kind of coffee delivery mechanism over another. Your coffee aficionados can grind their own beans and use it. If a new coffee standard comes out, a new brewing chamber can be introduced to support it.
"Of course, having a good interchangeable brewing chamber will be the greatest engineering challenge, but I've got some ideas in that direction. I don't see any real issues with that, but it will take some time to make it a reality.
"The coffee maker should work with ceramic, foam, paper, or plastic cups of varying heights, shapes, and sizes. There will have to be some limits, but there are standard sizes for coffee cups. We don't want the brewed coffee splattering out of the cup and messing up the area.
"There will be three sensors that basically run in serial. If anyone of the sensors gets tripped, then brewing will stop. The on/off switch will be the most visible to the user. It will be mechanical so it needs to be pretty robust to last twenty years. The I-R sensor to check the presence of the cup is basically all solid state. Getting one sufficiently durable to last twenty years might be a little tricky. A good electrical engineer could answer that question.
"The water sensor is just a float that can trip a simple switch. Since it has moving parts, it will be a little expensive to get one that will stand up to years of use.
"The heating element, one-way valve, and plumbing are not big deals. We've been making industrial brewers that have a lifetime of at least twenty years of hard service. The parts are out there. We just have to use them.
"We have to make sure that it can be operated single-handedly. You can't expect someone to have to hold the cover while pouring the water or to have to use two hands to put the brewing chamber in place. I know that's a small detail, but it's an important one. My Granddad had a stroke, and can't use his left hand."
"It sounds like you've given this a lot of thought," Dexter said.
"I'll admit that I have," Malcolm said. "The last coffee maker that I worked on couldn't be used one-handed. It was a design flaw introduced by another of my coworkers. I knew it and wanted management to give us the time to fix the design, but my boss pushed the project through over my objections. I had to tell my Granddad that he wouldn't be able to use the coffee maker I designed. He looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. Believe me, I felt like one."
Dexter always felt that pride in a product was an essential character trait in a good engineer. Why? Because a proud man would feel shame in knowingly releasing a bad product. Good engineers who took pride in their work produced good products.
"How did it do in the market place?" Dexter asked.
"It bombed. They dropped the price to clear out the inventory and discontinued the model after six months," Malcolm answered.
Dexter asked, "What was the problem?"
With a look of disgust on his face, Malcolm answered, "It was the stupid brewing chamber. There was a last minute change introduced by one of the marketing gurus to make it swung out to the side. When the coffee grinds were wet and the coffee pot wasn't in place, it was heavy enough to tip the coffee maker over on its side. I hadn't designed the base for that kind of configuration. The brewing basket was supposed to slide out to the front.
"In addition, you had to lift the brewing chamber off of a hinge to remove it so that you could empty the old grinds. That took two hands – one to lift the brewing chamber and another to hold down the rest of the coffee maker."
"Did you have anything to do with the design of the brewing chamber?" Dexter asked.
"No. I worked on the core structure of the coffee maker," Malcolm answered. "My initial design had a heavy wider base, but management decided that would cost an extra quarter to make so they had me reduce it in size. That's what made it so unstable. If we had kept my original design, I doubt it would have tipped over."
"Sounds like politics killed the product," Dexter said.
Malcolm said, "You're absolutely right. They put a recent college graduate in charge of designing the brewing basket. It was his first real product. He had an equal voice in design decisions as the rest of us. It was disgusting."
"I've observed that phenomena before," Dexter said.
There had been many occasions where he had sat in a meeting where someone who had never built a product was telling him how to do the job the right way. Most of the time, the kid was spouting nonsense that he had tried when he was a young snot-nosed engineer without experience. Back then, a senior engineer would explain where he was wrong and that would be the end of it. Now, the kid would flood management with memos and the issue would never end.
"I hope that you have a better management plan than that," Malcolm said.
Dexter said, "Well ... That's a tricky little thing."
"What?"
"The single cup coffee maker will have one person on it. Any supporting engineering activities will be contracted to an independent," Dexter said.
"Do you mean I'd have to do the whole thing?" Malcolm asked. His eyebrows nearly reached his hairline.
"More or less," Dexter answered. "You'd have to work with the engineers over at the plastics company to assure that it can be manufactured. You'd need to work with them to select the plastics used in its construction. You would probably need to contract out the design of the electrical circuit to an electrical engineer."
"Sweet!"
"Your name would be engraved on the side of the coffee maker," Dexter said.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Damn!" Malcolm said with a grin.
Dexter said, "I'm hiring two other engineers. One will work on the five-cup maker, and the other will do the ten-cup coffeemaker. I think it would be a good idea for each of you to check the others' work. Fresh eyes, and all of that."
"No problem," Malcolm said.
"The other two engineers would probably need to work closely together to assure a common style in the product. I don't see that being an issue with a single cup coffee maker so you would have a greater degree of creativity in how you design it," Dexter said.
"This is so good," Malcolm said while rubbing his hands together.
Dexter said, "I'll need a list of the resources you would need to produce the design. I'm looking at getting a three dimensional printer to make mock-ups of the designed product."
"That'll be great," Malcolm said.
Dexter smiled. He said, "One more question."
"What?" Malcolm asked.
"How long will it take?"
"Oh, boy," Malcolm said.
He exhaled loudly and looked at the far wall.
"I want a reasonable estimate," Dexter said.
Malcolm said, "That's a tough one. My team usually worked on a year long cycle from product conception to manufacturing. Of course, every meeting was filled with a lot of bickering. I remember it took us almost two weeks to come to consensus on the on/off switch for one of our machines. Still, I'd be working alone which would require a lot more effort on my part.
"Boy..."
"Best guess," Dexter said.
"Maybe fifteen to eighteen months. I'll have to get a design environment set up, create the initial drawings, validate the design, select the plastics for the various parts of it, iterate the design a couple of times, cost it out, and see what kind of manufacturing procedure needs to be followed," Malcolm said.
Dexter was pleased with that estimate. It was between the estimates given by the two other candidates for the same position. One candidate had boasted that nine months would be sufficient. That seemed a little quick to Dexter. The other candidate had said two years and he felt that was a little too long.
"Okay," Dexter said.
"I'd need to put together a project plan before giving you a firmer estimate," Malcolm said.
"How about packaging and UL certification?" Dexter asked.
It was surprising to Dexter how many people forgot about packaging and certification of products until too late in a project. There was nothing worse than having a product ready to go and not having any boxes to put it in.
Although he wasn't an electrical engineer, he knew that no electrical products could be sold without getting UL certification. A coffee pot was clearly an electrical product. Despite the fact that the circuit and electronic parts were pretty simple, it still had to be certified safe by the Underwriters Laboratory. He understood the need, but disliked the added expense of creating a product.
"Getting the packaging together is one of those things that we'll have to do once we have our final design. We'll need to know the exact dimensions of the product. There are firms that specialize in designing the packaging for products. Someone will have to deal with the artwork. That's a little out of my pay grade," Malcolm said.
Dexter already had plans in place to hire an artist to create the artwork that would appear on the packaging for the coffee makers. This was one of those areas where he had to function well outside his comfort zone. He had no clue how to go about hiring an artist.
"The UL Certification?"
Malcolm said, "I'm very familiar with the UL Certification requirements for coffee pots. It should be no problem. We need to get them involved as early as possible."
"How much will it cost?" Dexter asked.
"I don't actually know, since I never actually dealt with the business aspect of getting UL Certification. My job was always technical. We'll have to request a price quote from them," Malcolm answered.
Dexter said, "Okay."
Malcolm said, "Don't forget the user instructions and warranty card. Someone will have to write those and get them printed for inclusion in the packaging. For the printed material, we can assume certification."
"I didn't forget about that," Dexter said.
He was going to have to hire a technical writer to put together the basic brochure. The lawyer would write all of the legal mumbo-jumbo. He was tempted to just borrow the majority of the material out of the brochures that came with other coffee makers. He would also need to get someone to translate the written material into Spanish, as well.
"Do you want to go for a CE Mark?"
"What?" Dexter asked.
Malcolm said, "Well, the CE mark is a manufacturers self declaration that their manufacturing processes are in conformity with European Directives for selling products within the European Union."
"I've got no clue. I guess I'll have to look into it," Dexter said.
"Do so. You'll need it if you want to sell to Europe," Malcolm said.
Dexter asked, "Is there anything else you think I should know?"
"Not right off hand," Malcolm said.
"Do you have any questions?" Dexter asked.
"I have a hundred questions," Malcolm said.
"Okay, ask away."
"Are you offering shares in the company?" Malcolm asked.
Dexter answered, "Yes. We'll give out shares to the engineers of each coffee maker upon successful launch of their product."
"Excellent," Malcolm said. "I want to retire a millionaire."
"You really think so?" Dexter said.
"Yes. If I have control over the design of my coffee maker, then I know it will bring in money. It will be the best one on the market. This company will grow and I want a piece of the action," Malcolm said.
"Why are you so sure that it will grow?" Dexter asked rather pleased by the faith that Malcolm was demonstrating in the potential for the company.
Malcolm said, "How many hotels are in this country? How many rooms are in your average hotel? How many of them have single cup coffee makers in their rooms? If you make a single cup coffee maker that will last twenty years, I'm positive that every hotel chain, motel, and bed and breakfast in this country will be buying them in bulk."
"I hadn't thought about that," Dexter said stunned by the possibility.
He was pretty sure that Ed, with his business contacts, could probably arrange for a meeting with one or more hotel chain executives. He figured that with that one suggestion, Malcolm had landed the job. It was the kind of suggestion that would pay his salary for many years.
"Think about it. If I were you, I'd sell the first few production runs to a couple of large hotels. I bet you could sell fifty thousand units in Las Vegas, alone. I could include a little cutout that would allow a hotel to put its brand on the coffee maker," Malcolm said.
"I'll mention that to my partners," Dexter said thinking Ed could probably line up a couple of substantial orders before the first coffee maker rolled off the production line.
"Then there's the home market. Single people living alone will constitute a huge market. They don't need a five-cup coffee maker for everyday use. They need a quick cup of good coffee," Malcolm said.
"That was the market I was targeting," Dexter said.
Malcolm said, "You might not realize it, but this is my dream. I want to create a product that everyone in the country will recognize on sight. The idea that my name will be on it sends chills up and down my spine."
"That's good," Dexter said.
Malcolm asked, "Where will my office be?"
"Right here," Dexter answered.
The room they were in was huge, capable of fitting at least fifty cubicles. There were five desks along one wall with a bookcase sandwiched between each desk. There were three huge tables in the middle of the room. There were several additional smaller tables at the far end of the room. Each wall was covered with white board from ceiling to floor. There was a desk near the door to the office.
"How many people will be working in here?" Malcolm asked.
"Six. Three engineers, one secretary, a tech support person, and a purchasing agent," Dexter answered.
"This is a lot of space for just six people," Malcolm said.
Dexter said, "This is a real engineering work space, just like they used to have in the old days. You'll be able to printout your design, gather around a table and discuss issues with others. You've got space on the walls to write notes, solve problems, and track your schedule. You'll be with other engineers working on essentially equivalent products that you'll be able to discuss your ideas, explore concepts, and validate designs."
"I was kind of expecting a cubicle," Malcolm said looking around the room in amazement.
"There will be no cubicles for engineers, here," Dexter said. "Engineers need space to work. They need to be around other engineers to brainstorm. They need to exchange information with others working on similar products."
"Wow," Malcolm said. "I'm going to like working here."
"I think you will," Dexter said.
"When do I start?" Malcolm asked.
"You aren't going to ask about benefits?" Dexter asked.
"Do you have benefits?"
"Yes. We have life, disability, medical, and dental insurance. We're looking at getting a 401K."
"Good enough for me," Malcolm said. "When do I start?"
"Aren't you concerned about pay?" Dexter asked.
"Sure. How much?" Malcolm asked.
For the next ten minutes, Dexter and Malcolm discussed pay. Malcolm was very flexible in terms of accepting stock, in lieu of money. Dexter had the impression that Malcolm would have settled for just enough money to cover his bills, if the rest of his salary was in stock.
After calling Janet to let her know that he wanted to hire Malcolm, he sent the man across the hall to meet with her in order to fill out all of the required paperwork.
Dexter had figured that he would hire three engineers, turn them loose in designing a product, and be done with it. After a little thought, he realized that he was going to have to hire a secretary, a purchasing agent, and a technician to provide support for the computer systems.
After further thought, he realized that he was looking at contracting out work to an artist, a technical writer, an electrical engineer, and a marketing specialist. He was going to have to establish contractual relationships with the plastics company, a manufacturing facility, a distributor, a printer, and a packaging company.
His head was spinning while he considered all of the work ahead of him. Dexter pulled out his cell phone and made a call.
"Hello, Amber."
"Hello, Dexter."
"Would you like a job?" Dexter asked.
"What kind of job?" Amber asked.
"I need a caretaker," Dexter answered.
"What?"
"I'm over my head, here. I need a personal assistant," Dexter said.
"Do you want me to give you head between meetings, or something?" Amber asked suspiciously.
"No. I need someone to take notes, keep track of my appointments, and make sure that I'm where I need to be when I need to be there," Dexter said.
"Why me?"
"Don't you want out of the business?"
"Yes."
"You're a friend. I want to help you get out of the business."
"This is a serious offer?"
"Yes."
"Let me think about it. I'll get back to you," Amber said.
After Amber hung up, Dexter sat back, thinking about what all had to be done. He still had to post an article on the website, that afternoon.
Ten minutes later, Janet walked into the room. She glared at Dexter and said, "You want to hire Amber as a personal assistant?"
Surprised by the question, Dexter wondered how she knew about it so quickly. He guessed Amber had immediately called her, although he could think of no reason why she would do so.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I need someone to keep track of where I'm supposed to be, what I'm supposed to be doing, and keeping everyone off my back."
"Why her?"
"She wants out of the escort business," Dexter answered.
"Oh," Janet said.
She stood there for five full seconds, staring at the floor.
She finally said, "You fuck her, and I'll cut your balls off."
"Yes, Dear."
Edited By TeNderLoin