Change is a Necessary Evil

Dear Readers
Today we discuss one of my least favorite subjects. Namely, change.
But you say, change can be a good thing, metamorphosis. True. But change in manufacturing generally means a few things. Most of them bad.
Some don't apply. Some do.
1. A supplier has discontinued something. You searched high and low for months on end. You haggled, you begged, you finally found IT!!!! And you'd have bet a lifetime of Cheetos that it would be available to you at the ready for the rest of your natural life. It suddently isn't. And the replacement offered is Gawd-Awful.
2. Ok, really, this is the only change I want to discuss today. And here's why - learn at my mistakes!!!!! HAVE A BACKUP!!! Even if it's one you are entirely less passionate about, in a pinch it will do, and you'll have time to research again.

As it stands, no one but me will feel this for a very long time, which is a very good thing. And by the time someone else feels it, I'll have found the solution. Also a good thing. But I will know and go to sleep knowing that I comitted the classic rookie error. The manufacturing equivalent of not backing up your work on to hard copy. Hand slapped, suitably contrite for one night.