Implementation Methodology – A Pinewood Derby Success Story

As written by Sigma’s AJ Cruz

If you’ve been in IT very long you’ve probably come across numerous systems implementation methodologies. Models with acronyms like PIO (Plan, Implement, Operate) or APDIO (Assess, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate) or Cisco’s PPDIOO (Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate, Optimize). Regardless of the number of letters in the acronym, they all have three basic parts: A planning phase, an implementation phase, and a closing phase. They all serve the same purpose: reducing implementation risk and ultimately producing successful results (projects delivered on time, on budget, and according to specs).

I’d like to share with you my first experience in pinewood derby racing (as a parent) and explore how implementation methodologies are recipes for success in any life endeavor.

A while back my eight-year-old, Jacob, brought home his first pinewood derby kit from cub scouts. This was it. The event I had been dreading for eight long years had finally arrived. That’s right; the day he was born I pondered the grand responsibility of one day producing a derby car so completely awesome so as not to shame my boy’s name and make dads everywhere shrink with envy. OK so maybe I didn’t set the bar for us quite that high. In fact, I was just hoping we wouldn’t get last place. At any rate, I knew our success on the pinewood circuit depended on 1. A solid plan, 2. Proper implementation of that plan, and 3. Careful observation during the event to catch any important lessons for future races.

1. THE PLAN

Our first order of business was a strategy session. Jacob and I sat down together and I initiated the session with a few thought-provoking questions. “How does the car move down the track, is it gas-powered or electrical?”

“No, they hold it at the top of the track and gravity makes it go.”

I hold a baseball and a sheet of paper above my head and ask the next question, “If I drop a baseball and a sheet of paper, which one will fall faster?”

“The baseball.”

I drop the objects and Jacob’s prediction is correct so I ask him “Why did the baseball fall faster?”

“Because it’s heavier.”

So now I point out to him that we’ve established the first important rule of pinewood derby cars: They’re propelled by gravity and the heavier it is the faster it will move.

Next I ask what would make the car run slower, and to lead the question a little I add “do you think it would go faster if the track was ice or dirt?”

“Ice.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s more slippery.”

I explain that ice is more slippery because there’s less friction, friction works against gravity to slow the car down (second important rule of pinewood derby cars). We continue brainstorming and several more questions later we develop the following strategy-

GRAVITY

• Make the car as heavy as possible (5oz per the cub scout rules)

FRICTION

• Reduce air friction by selecting a sleek, aerodynamic body design
• Reduce wheel/axle friction by lubricating the axels
• Reduce wheel/axle friction by straightening and smoothing the axles
• Reduce track friction by cambering the tires
• Reduce track friction by raising one wheel

2. THE BUILD

Jacob and I started out on the computer looking up pictures of body styles. Jacob was really interested in a muscle car-looking body. Wanting him to be the one to design the car and thinking at our slow speeds aerodynamics wouldn’t play that huge of a role, I agreed.

I cut and sanded the wood.

Next, I tackled the axels. I placed an axel into my cordless drill, pointy side in and ran the drill at low speed. Using a hammer I tapped the axel gently until the axel lost its wobble while the drill was running.

Next, I used a file and with the axel still in the drill, running at high speed filed down the burs under the cap of the axels. I finished off with a steel wire buffing followed by a cotton polish (used a cotton rod from a gun cleaning kit).

I tapped each wheel into place. I then took a small punch tool and lightly tapped the axel on the front-right wheel until it was slightly raised. Just barely though, we don’t want it bouncing around too much. At this point we have a car with only 3 wheels touching the track, but if left straight the entire pad of the wheel touches the track. So next I took the punch tool and lightly tapped the inside (pointy) end of the axel which caused the wheel to angle in slightly. Repeat x3 and we now have our car riding on the outside edges of the wheels. To check, place the car on the edge of a flat surface (table) and make sure you can see a tiny crack of light under the wheels near the inside.

Next was weight. We had a food scale we borrowed from mom.

I put the body, wheels, and axels on the scale to get a rough idea of how much weight we needed to add. I then got out my tackle box and started adding fishing weights to the scale till we got to 5oz or just over. In our case it took 3 fishing weights (I can’t remember what size I used).

Now is a good time to mention weight placement. My physics isn’t strong enough to calculate whether front placement would be better than rear placement, so I took a guess and went with front placement. It feels like the better choice, my thought being it would pull the car down the track and the back end wouldn’t want to swap places with the front end.

We drilled the holes, placed the weights, puttied. Jacob painted and we weighed in at just under 5oz.

The day of the race we lubricated each axle with powder graphite and we were ready to race.

3.  THE RACE

I’m pleased to say that Jacob’s car placed 2^nd. Not too shabby for our first derby experience. I attribute our success to proper planning & execution, but we weren’t done yet. With any work project it’s important to continually optimize processes and to identify lessons learned so that future projects can build on past experience. I knew it was the same for our racing experience. During the race I noticed a pattern with the successful cars and asked Jacob what he thought all the fast cars had in common.

We both agreed the faster cars “looked fast” or in other words, were aerodynamically streamlined. I think we’ll pay more attention to that variable next year.