

McLaren F1 Tech Applied to Other Industries - valhalla
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/mclaren-applied-technologies-f1/

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exDM69
The technology in Formula 1 is just impressive, there's far more to it than
meets the eye of a casual observer.

Just to name a few things related to McLaren... Their headquarters has an
artificial lake to cool down the airflow in their 145 meter underground wind
tunnel [1]. And when the cars are out on track anywhere in the world, their
engineers and strategists are hard at work in their mission control room [2]
that resembles something out of a space program more than a racing team. Not
to forget that they are pioneers in using composite materials in racing and
other applications.

But I really had no idea that they had something to do with toothpaste.

Now, I'm a bit gutted to see such a great team having such a horrible season
in racing with their new engine supplier.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_Technology_Centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_Technology_Centre)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYhl7csZJHw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYhl7csZJHw)

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NamTaf
I would honestly prefer to watch an F1 competition where we get to watch all
the back-room engineering and support infrastructure than the actual F1 car on
the track itself. I've always been a fair-weather F1 watcher, but I'd really
dig seeing more of what goes on behind the scenes as part of the battles
between engineering teams.

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jdietrich
Secrecy is an inherent factor in F1 - no team wants to give away valuable data
to their rivals.

If you're interested in the technical side of the sport, there are many
journalists providing very detailed analysis. Craig Scarborough, Matt Somers,
Steven de Groote and Ted Kravitz spring to mind, but there are plenty of
others.

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NamTaf
Yup, it's all shrouded in huge secrey because it's each team's differentiating
factor given that the cars are so standardised. It doesn't reduce how much it
fascinates me :)

I will check out some of those journalists. Thank you for the suggestion, I
greatly appreciate it!

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vanderZwan
> _“We didn’t tell the shop-floor workers what to do,” McGrath says. “We put
> them in McLaren overalls and let them play with the system. They saw for
> themselves what had to change.” The Maidenhead team developed a seven-step
> process that began before the changeover, mirroring McLaren’s cycle of
> simulation, pre-planning, debriefing and continuous improvement. Changeover
> times fell by 60 percent, dropping from an average of 39 minutes to 15,
> equating to an extra 20 million tubes by the end of the year. “We used to
> see changeovers as down time,” Glover says. “McLaren sees pit stops as an
> opportunity to win the race.”_

It seems like it boils down to this. Which means it's a management issue, in a
way.

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zemvpferreira
It's nothing new, either. In the industry, this sort of attack on down-time is
core to (the original) lean principles:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-
Minute_Exchange_of_Di...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-
Minute_Exchange_of_Die)

I've done analysis in manufacturing lines where I found 95% reductions in set-
up time to be possible. Getting buy in to make the necessary changes is never
easy, though, and using the McLaren brand to facilitate is genius.

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vanderZwan
Yeah, it sounds great from the "irrational human" perspective, which shouldn't
be underestimated in importance.

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rasz_pl
Metcals, Mantises, own reflow line, they certainly dont eff around. F1 bans
testing? they Matrix tests. Im all jelly.

This is certainly a good PR piece, makes me want to work there.

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johnm1019
> “We used to see changeovers as down time,” Glover says. “McLaren sees pit
> stops as an opportunity to win the race.”

This is a compelling way to change the frame-of-reference. Business X has a
factory that makes widgets. By framing the downtime as a "pitstop" instead of
a "break", it totally changes the mindset, expectations, and pace of the
participants.

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thethington
> “We used to see changeovers as down time,” Glover says. “McLaren sees pit
> stops as an opportunity to win the race.”

This is news to me, having watched F1 over the years, I was actually under the
impression McLaren saw pit stops as an opportunity to lose races it really
should have won.

Ok, the above might be somewhat tongue in cheek, but 2012 was the height of
this when they had, at least in Hamilton's hands, probably the best car on the
grid, but only he only ended up 4th in the Drivers' championship largely due
to numerous pit stop errors.

Admittedly they aren't the only team that has made mistakes, but they are the
only team I know of that tries to sells it's expertise so openly to other
industries.

I know they set this division up several years ago, when the team was much
stronger, but now that the team has become a shadow of their former self, it
must make their marketing of these services that much harder.

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fezz
Seemingly a puff piece on McLaren...

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vegabook
Ron Dennis has always wanted to diversify, to use the Mclarent know-how and
brand elsewhere, and that was good when they were winning races. The
embarrassing spectacle of both Mclaren cars at the back of the grid, being
lapped, has to make one wonder if _all_ group energy and bandwidth should be
spent on the F1 operation rather than potential distractions. The brand is
currently being damaged.

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dav3
McLaren Applied Technologies is now working with and helping to attract racing
team sponsors. I don't think it is a distraction so much as an aid.

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user3141592653
just to supplement a really interesting article on how the same principles
were applied from engineers is Japan

[http://goo.gl/jkFaJZ](http://goo.gl/jkFaJZ)

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rurban
I'm so proud of my previous work, put to such a good use.

