Chapter 4: These Little 1000 Lights of Mine
July 12th noonish 191 bikes built
We're really starting to pick up the pace on the bike builds. Almost 200 done but we're going to have to average 160 bikes a week from here on out to make it. I've been reassured that this will not be a problem. Today's bombshell is that JB wants all of the bikes to be installed with Trek's new light set. A great idea as we're introducing a new bracket and our return rides from the kickball tournament will be at night. The thing about that is that all of these lights need to be installed with batteries and then affixed to a bike.
Don't get me wrong, these lights are stellar! The universal bracket that allows you to place other Trek lights depending on the rider's preference is killer. If you were to put it on one bike, or even a few, no problem. Putting batteries into 1000 light sets (mind you, "sets" means front AND rear) and then installing them on 1000 bikes? That's a bit of what we call a "bottleneck". Sitting in a dank warehouse installing batteries for two full days? Well, that sounds like a perfect project for the interns.
I was only able to wrangle one intern as the others proved too swift or hid behind the mountains of stickers we had beset them on mailing out for a promotion we were running. I decided to roll up the sleeves with intern Bryan and get to work. It took us a full Sunday and Monday to do but Bryan (the slowest of the four interns) and I managed to work out the lights. That was the day I was able to impart my wisdom upon my young protegee: You don't have to be the strongest, just the fastest. Had I heeded my own advice, I may not be responsible for this whole project in the first place.
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