You can’t get your manager to understand how much a broken machine is costing the company.

There is a fine line between wanting new equipment and needing new equipment. One of the best examples is computers. Every 15 minutes or so, a breakthrough in computing power happens, and the equipment you are using becomes obsolete. But upgrading with each new release is too expensive. The flip side, though is also true. Sometimes the waste generated by an old system is far, far greater than the cost of getting a new computer. If you want new equipment, the trick lies in thinking like a manager.