Improve profitability and cash flow for small business, even the one-person operation, by applying proven value engineering methods.
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Improve profitability and cash flow for small business, even the one-person operation, by applying proven value engineering methods.

Engineering Tool Box

This engineering tool box page is all about the underlying message of this site: "Engineering = Common Sense + Knowledge + Tools"

Of course an engineer today isn't likely to still be using an abacus or a slide rule. Tools and knowledge change with the times, but common sense is timeless and the element that often makes the difference between ordinary and elegant results. See the "2000-Year-Old Solution" story below.

On many pages of this site, you'll see paired images like these two that urge you to "Apply VE to your business..." and "Profit by doing things better."
Apply VE to your business... Profit by doing things better.
They appear just as a reminder of the basic premise of this site, which is that we can use value engineering principles to solve almost any business problem and so improve a company's performance, profitability and cash flow.

Essential Business Tools

Ours is an engineering consulting business, "business" being the operative word. Here are some of the things that are in our engineering tool box and/or that we highly recommend.

Web Services
Engineering Tool Box best-buy resource. Definitely the most valuable thing in our engineering tool box, the web services we use include everything from (1) super-precise market research to (2) site hosting to (3) business promotion. Click here for more information.

Business Cards
Engineering Tool Box best-buy resource. We get our business cards online in several versions - (1) free business cards for some occasions, (2) premium business cards to impress and (3) magnetic business cards to really remember us by! Click here for more information.

Business Planning
Engineering Tool Box best-buy resource. Every successful enterprise needs a plan, which then needs to be executed. Plans take many forms. For those needing guidance, we recommend "The ABCs of Writing Winning Business Plans" by Cash Flow Technologies, Inc. The ABCs of Writing Winning Business PlansClick here for more information.

If you use a business tool that you find particularly good, contact us to let us know about it. Now here's a little story about tools from 2,000 years ago.

2000-Year-Old Solution

The following is adapted from an article resulting from the work we did in the run-up to the Year 2000. The article is called "The Millennium Bug, A Year 2000 Problem with a 2000-Year-Old Solution." (Historical and technical content from "The Ancient Engineers" by L. Sprague de Camp, Ballantyne Books, NY, first published 1960) It offers a glimpse into the engineering tool box of ancient times.

Our year 2000 problem has a 2000-year-old solution. Of course the precise answers were not available two millennia ago, but the problem-solving techniques were and important part of the engineering tool box. In fact, there are many examples of technical ingenuity in those earlier times, several of them having to do with clocks. If only some of those ancient engineers were around today working with the same gusto on the great millennium problem we created for ourselves.

Take Ktesibios for example. He lived in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemaios II Philadelphos (285-247 B.C.) The son of a barber, he was an inveterate tinkerer who grew to be the Thomas Edison of his time. His inventions included the force pump, the hydraulic pipe organ, the musical keyboard, the metal spring and the water clock.

Ktesibios was not satisfied with measuring time by the rising and setting sun, or even by the most precise sun dial. So he invented a water-powered time-teller, overcoming technical obstacles that for his time were quite formidable. His first attempt used the emptying of water from a vessel as the basic unit of time. Errors caused by clogging of the drain holes were minimized by using orifices of gold or gemstones, which were undaunted by dust and rust and could be easily cleaned.

The draining container of water evolved into a system of strings and pulleys, not all that different from modern gear mechanisms. With this engineering tool box technology, it was relatively easy to signal each passing hour in a day - except for one thing. In Ktesibios' time, the daytime period was divided into 12 equal parts. This is fine of course, except that the total time of daylight changes with the season. Not something on the scale of our millennium problem for sure, but it was an issue to be dealt with nevertheless. No need to go into details, Ktesibios came up with several solutions.

The clever engineers of bygone times exemplify human ingenuity. Our creativity and problem-solving skills have always been there and always will be part of the engineering tool box. Putting them to work for us now is nothing more than bringing a 2000-year old solution to our year 2000 problem.

Return from this engineering tool box page
to the value engineering page.

Internet business consulting that is results oriented.