Sam's hunt for money and savings begins
[!0.987]2022-01-21

This is only the surface of what I found in your supply chain. A deep dive will show even more places where you're losing money.

Who's in charge of buying stuff?

Nobody. I eliminated the procurement position years ago. The individual departments can handle getting their own parts.

Cost savings.

Speaking of “only the surface”, what other cost savings do I need to worry about?

Color by George Peterson.

Sam's hunt for money and savings begins
[!0.987]2022-01-24

Let's see. Other savings. I've eliminated the training department. I've extended scheduled maintenance. What used to be done yearly is now done every eighteen months.

With extended maintenance,
I don't need as many workers, so I lowered the maintenance complement by a third.

This is how a space station crashes and burns without ever leaving orbit.

Color by George Peterson.

Sam's hunt for money and savings begins
[!0.987]2022-01-26

I want to go through the mechanical spaces with my engineer. You may be headed for a life support failure.

Most people don't get a big smile when life support failure is mentioned.

Most people aren't a financial genius like me.

Color by George Peterson.

Sam's hunt for money and savings begins
[!0.987]2022-01-28

You need to tell me what you're planning.

No. There are some
things I need to keep under my hat.

You are forcing me
to resort to drastic measures.

[!1.5][x0.9]Please?

Color by George Peterson.

Sam's hunt for money and savings begins
[!0.987]2022-01-31

We are done for now. Don't worry. Everything is under control and no one will be put in any danger.

Okay, Helix. We're smart enough to figu­re out what's going on.

We don't know the station and we're not that smart.

And we know that. So we know to get people smarter than us to help. That's
a kind of smart all on its own.

Color by George Peterson.

Sqid in the maintenance shop
[!0.987]2022-02-02

Our next stop is the maintenance
shop. We can find out more about life support and why the workers are fighting with the boss.

Conflict is wasteful. If we can solve the problem, we can add that to our list of things to get paid for.

Wouldn't the value of that be hard to calculate?

The pessimist says “Will
be hard to calculate.” The optimist says “Makes it easy to overcharge.”

Color by George Peterson.

Sqid in the maintenance shop
[!0.987]2022-02-04

Hey, It's our friend Niomi.
She's headed to the maintenance shop as well.

She saw us. Hurry up, Helix. We have to get to the shop before she can bar the door.

Color by George Peterson.

Sqid in the maintenance shop
[!0.987]2022-02-07

What do you want?

Information.

There's a wasteful conflict going on. I've talked to management. Now I want to talk to the labor guys.

Ah. You plan to create unity by getting both sides to hate you more than they hate each other.

I don't plan for that, it just happens. However, this problem is too big for even my cephalopod charisma to solve
on its own.

Color by George Peterson.

Sqid in the maintenance shop
[!0.987]2022-02-09

Friend of yours?

Sam's no friend. He's a sneaky larcenous space squid.

That's sqid.
No u.

Well, we can't have an open door policy if there's a sqid stuck in there.

See? He pronounces
it right.

And this hardly promotes a culture of welcome.

There are some people you shouldn't welcome! There are some people you should chase away
with a stick!

Color by George Peterson.

Sqid in the maintenance shop
[!0.987]2022-02-11

Hi, Niomi.

You're getting quite a
crowd out here. People
are waiting to go to work.

If I stop pushing, Sam will get in.

You may as well let him in.
As soon as those technicians realize you're between them and their morning coffee, no force in the universe will keep that door closed.

Color by George Peterson.