Published on: July 25, 2014 by Blair Haas
As we have mentioned in this blog before, Bud Industries recently celebrated its 85th anniversary. There is something a bit disingenuous about a company that is so involved with the high-tech industry having survived and thrived as long as we have. Often we have heard the story of a technology employee being considered old and near the end of their “desirable” employment by the time they are 30. One can rapidly list the companies who missed the next step in the technology world and are no longer with us. Having given this all a great deal of thought, I think one of the secrets to Bud’s longevity is the inherent flexibility of our products. We have products that have been in our line since the 1930’s and what has changed is what they enclose as opposed to the need for totally new enclosures. For example, a product that might have housed small tubes now can house boards.
A perfect example of this is our Pi Sandwich enclosure, designed for the first of the raspberry pi development boards. Recently, the foundation released a completely new version of the pi, level B+. It has many new features including more USB ports, a longer GPIO among others. This means that the location of holes or slots required of an enclosure to fit the board have all changed, which might mean a new box would be needed. However, because of the flexibility that we built into the box, the new version fits well and all features are easily accessible.
All too often today, obsolescence is designed into the product. At Bud, we strive to make enclosures that will endure, will be able to adapt to the new technologies, and provide value for our customer. It is one of the major ingredients in the “secret sauce” that have allowed us to thrive through the generations.
