[sebastianavina]

or the scissor design has been around since the 50s and nobody remember how to make the mold and the whole process, maybe there was a reason why they didnt have customers anymore...

My company is family owned, and when my granpa died, a lot of knowledge was lost, my dad is kind of dumb and sunk the company in debt and lost all the customers for years, when I joined, I worked hard for 10 years and now we are back as leaders on our community, but I invested heavily on machinery and studied a lot for new products and reborn old ones.

It happened several times that I was at the tooling warehouse with my dad and asked, what's this tool/machine for? and he didnt knew it, just to discover it some years later.

Yet, I can say that my company was founded on 1920 and I'm the fourth generation running (or ruining) it.

[jstimpfle]

Coincidentally, I can tell a story about computer keyboards, in this case Ultra Classic from Unicomp. Their keyboards use the same technology as the legendary IBM Model M keyboard (I have one that was produced in 1985 and it's still my favourite keyboard, use it almost every day). I even heard (though don't know if it's true) that Unicomp produced branded Model M's for a while.

But even though the Unicomp has mechanics equal or comparable to the Model M, they have serious issues with the molding process. In spite of warnings on various internet forums, I got a slightly used keyboard from Ebay and it quickly developped issues with the space bar (the mold is so bad that the key had too much friction).

They have been nice enough to send a new space bar, but sure enough the new one has a huge dent on it (only affecting looks this time). Also, I'm left with a deformed spring (I thought I'd been careful but...). Now being offered RMA and being requested to send it from Europe to USA. Again, friendly service, but I'd rather have quality.

I don't know anything about molding, but it seems to be that some process knowledge gets lost over time, as demand decreases. (Or maybe the machines need to get serviced?)

UPDATE, found an introduction an youtube and loved it. Submission, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17381697

[dwaltrip]

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad you were able to get the business back on it's feet. I'm sure it was a journey.

It is very interesting how long-running companies change over time. I'm reading "The Toyota Way" right now, which shows some of the interesting history if that company (the main focus isn't history).

[withdavidli]

Thanks for sharing. It’s a point of view I didn’t take even though I come from family owned businesses. Usually small businesses fail fast, so my thought that since it lasted so long it must’ve been ran at least decently well. Didn’t think documentation would be such a big problem for such a specialized company.

None of the family businesses I’ve been apart of lasted more than one generation lol. The children usually looking to not continue what their parents did, or sick of it since they were forced to help since they were kids. Passing on a company to the heir that has no interest except it was what was expected is dangerous. Happy you were able to turn it around.

[matt_the_bass]

Curious, what company?