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This article is provided by Everdrive used auto parts the leader in used Honda parts and used transmissions

Preventing Transmission Damage

Your car is obviously a complex machine with hundreds of parts working together to make it operate properly. Ideally, the ignition, charging system, cooling system, and every other component would work perfectly without your having to think about them. Of course, wear and tear take an inevitable toll. Over time, parts wear out and need to be repaired or replaced. In this article, we’re going to explore transmissions in the context of how they can sustain damage. Repair work normally performed on them can be expensive. The more you can avoid causing unnecessary harm (or, at least preventing it from happening), the more money you’ll save.

Factors That Cause Damage

If you’re driving an automatic (ATF), one of the most common sources of long-term damage is heat. When your engine is running, the ATF undergoes a significant amount of internal friction. That friction generates intense heat. The purpose of the transmission fluid is to absorb that heat. If it can remain at approximately 175 degrees Fahrenheit, the ATF will likely last as long as 80,000 miles or more. However, if the temperature climbs past 200 degrees, the part can start oxidizing from the heat. That’s a problem. The ATF can also suffer from other issues (though, they’re less common). For example, if it was rebuilt by a poorly-trained mechanic, it can fail for a number of reasons. Also, if the fluid levels are too low, or you’re driving extremely aggressively (i.e. constant racing, abrupt starting and stopping, etc.), you can cause damage over time.

How To Prevent It From Fail

As implied in the previous section, you’ll need to make sure that the transmission fluid is at an appropriate level. If the fluid always seems low, place cardboard under your car to identify whether a leak has formed. If it has, have a mechanic fix it. Also, pay particular attention to the color of the fluid. A dark color usually signals that it’s dirty and needs to be replaced. As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, always check your owners manual to determine the proper replacement intervals. You can also preserve the life of your transmission by the manner in which you shift. For example, press your brake pedal down to make sure your car isn’t in motion when you shift out of Park. Similarly, don’t shift into reverse if your car is moving forward. Doing so can put enormous strain on the ATF.

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Management often bemoans the fact that IT projects fail to be delivered on time and within budget. And the truth is, the IT spending waste that occurs in our industry is at times mind-boggling. At F. Curtis Barry & Company, we currently have four clients—ranging in size from $7 million to $650 million in sales—all struggling with the same schedule and budget problems as they attempt to implement new order management and warehouse management systems. Another client invested $350,000 with one of the industry’s leading OMS companies, but after a failed implementation, backed off the project.

What’s at the root of this waste? It’s the lack of project management on both the client and the vendor side. Here are some tips based on the lessons we’ve learned that could help you avoid the same fate with your IT implementations.

• It starts with the deal. Some projects should simply never be. Usually it begins when management accepts the vendor’s selling proposal, which turns out to be flawed. Take the case of one of our largest clients: They have been struggling for two years now to work with the vendor, basically to rewrite much of the vendor’s system. The client is determined because there is a huge potential ROI. But while it will be a big deal for the vendor when it gets finished, it is taking them off their commercial systems path. The client should have looked at the proposal more realistically at the start.

• You have to have a plan. Vendor proposals are full of boilerplate—simple task schedules and bar graphs. The real plans for a complex systems implementation require all the details to be thought out, agreed to and then scheduled. One mistake companies make is that they don’t update the plan weekly; they may use it to get started, but then the updating is infrequent. Also, plans often don’t take dependencies into account; everybody involved is continually surprised because the major subtasks are not in synch with each other.

• Who is in charge? Both the client and the vendor have to have a project manager. Too many times the client leaves that up to the vendor—and that’s a bad idea. For one thing, the vendor doesn’t know your business or organization. For another, it’s expensive. The client needs to be in control of the process and the implementation.

• How often do you talk? As we all know, systems projects involve a lot of verbal and written communication, with documents constantly passing back and forth. It would seem on the surface that you are talking many times every day. But that’s really not the issue. You should have weekly meetings between the two parties, conducted by the two project managers, reviewing the total project and the schedule and resetting objectives, if necessary. Other critical parties can and should join, if available. Then the two project managers should circulate the updated schedule and meeting notes. Once you’re inside 30-45 days, you should be having a brief conversion meeting daily. This is an excellent way for all parties to stay committed to each other and to get the implementation done.

If you commit to follow these basics religiously, everything else should fall in line. As a result you’ll have a much better chance of finishing your IT project on time and within budget.

Article provided by F. Curtis Barry, helping your manage your warehouse management systems, order management systems and your inventory management systems.