The new J-School server has arrived! Spent half the day developing a migration strategy to transition sites and services for the school off of OS X Server and onto a Linux/cPanel solution more tuned to the security ravages and configuration needs of pure web hosting (if cPanel ran on OS X Server we’d be sticking with it). The next month will be an interesting challenge as we get that project off the ground.
In the middle of putting the strategy together, the server itself arrived. Along with it, a separate box, very light. Inside that box, two more boxes. And inside those… ye gods! One power cable each. Power cables that don’t require damage protection at all, and that could have been stuffed into a single padded envelope. Better yet, they could have been thrown into the server’s own box – there was plenty of room.
This kind of thing makes my blood boil. Why do so many people/organizations behave as if their actions don’t matter? It’s not just one box. Multiply this kind of apathy by millions and you get… the world as it is. Talked to a Safeway employee last night who was foisting plastic bags on me unrequested. Asked her whether management was talking about banning plastic bags from the store any time soon. Her answer floored me: “No. In fact, we’re not even allowed to ask ‘Paper or plastic.’”
My boss warned me that if I blogged about this, certain perqs would be revoked. This is a test.
Wait until you get a box of Sun hard drives – they are packed like the cables – but everyone of them comes with a 4 page manual. Same thing for servers when you order 20 or 30 of the same kind – you get 30/40 DVD’s + manual. A good point worth raising somewhere (the manufacturer will agree as it does not need to deliver 1-1 things, if he sells 30 boxes and only needs to make one manula he wins.)
@Ludovic: Yow – Where do you work where you’re ordering 20 or 30 servers at a time?
Well say a startup – actually @ joost we did that a few times.
I also did it when working @ banks.
Scott,
The problem exists in pretty much all computer hardware. In both servers as well as heavy-grade networking equipment you get items in different packaging at different times.
The problem is due to Just-In-Time inventory and economies of scale.
In the interest of not having much inventory on hand, and facing the spectre of an inventory write down ( thus hurting the stock ) a la 2001, the company selling you the server doesn’t actually keep components in a warehouse. i.e. they simply couldn’t assemble everything in 1 box because they don’t have it! As such there’s no opportunity for consolidation in packaging because this distributed swarm of actions never consolidates.
So what happens is that they send the order to their various suppliers. They know you need a Widget, a Thingy, and a two power cords. So they send the order to the suppliers to send the thingy, the widget, etc. to one Mr. Hacker at such and such address.
So, let’s assume that provides a sub-component, you want to order as small a variety of boxes as possible so that you can work out bigger bulk-er deals with your provider. So there they are with all those boxes – and the smallest box is considerably larger than the envelope size you suggested.
So you get that Mr. Hacker’s order needs 2 or ‘ludovic’ needs 20 of power cord or what have you: you have the small unit of box and an unskilled workforce who understands “Each order, each unit, one box, retrieve label, put label on, put in chute”
And thus you have this packaging overkill you describe.
Why would your boss have a problem with you blogging about this?
Les – You don’t know my boss :) Hard to explain. Of course he was 90% joking… but wanted to see if he’d notice, just calling his bluff.
My sister recently ordered two rings from Macys online. She ordered them together.
They came in two separate shipping boxes that could hold 3 cans of soup each. Inside each was a ton of packing paper and a very small little ziplock style bag that held the ring. They could have just packaged them both together in a recycle friendly padded envelope. They weren’t even expensive rings.. Like $20 each.
The negligence is not just related to computer accessories
Stephanie
I just got this package in the mail and it reminded me of your post. So here’s my experience with incredibly wasteful packaging:
http://www.machine501.com/blog/2008/06/04/unbelievable-packaging-waste-from-babies-r-us/