Mr.
Halpern episode 2 As recalled by Mr. Bob Gumbinner
Mr.
Halpern would make instant decisions without studying the
possibilities. As far as sales, advertising and marketing go they
were good; but about production and similar matters, they could be
costly errors. When I became a vice president and was away from the
plant for several days, I worried about what I would find when I
returned. The most costly error was when we started to manufacture
subtractive plates. We built a room with a silica gel drier and HEPA
filters in which we installed a meniscus coater. As our sales
increased, we installed a similar coater in an enclosed area along
the wall if the first coater. Since these coaters operated at less
than 10 feet a minute, Mr. Halpern decided that one man could run
both coaters so he ordered the wall between them taken down. We were
never able to clean up the dirt this caused and operate these
coaters. About three months later we had installed the C-line and
used this line instead. One of these coaters we sent to our German
factory. In order to transport it to Osterode, we had to use a
helicopter to lift it over a narrow, low railroad overpass.