Those #+%^ engineers!

   / Those #+%^ engineers! #101  
All the engineers I know have to say “righty righty, lefty loosely” to figure out how to open a water bottle! My favorite is a navy “nuclear engineer” friend(engineering is like veganing they must tell everyone). I don’t know how many times I’ve had to fix things for him or tell him how to fix things.
 
   / Those #+%^ engineers! #102  
Believe me, I'm not one to defend engineers.

But, I do have family, and friends, that are engineers. (At least they are not lawyers). Guess who they call, whenever they need a problem solved with their own stuff? 🤪

However, many issues people rant over, are not actually the fault of the engineering department.

An engineer can easily design it, to include all the things that would make it easy to service, or even make it so it won't need to be serviced at all.

But, every part has a budget attached to it. Go over that figure, and, the budget department will reject it. Convince them, they have to increase the budget for that part, and they will expect someone to cut the budget on something else to pay for it. They may force engineering to have no option, but to use an existing part. And, refuse to allow engineering the money to make the changes, that would make a part more accessible in that application. Leaving to you, wondering why the engineers were so, "dumb"?

So, while it may seem like penny pinching, it all adds up when you have many hundreds of parts, and a budget that has to be met.
 
   / Those #+%^ engineers! #103  
Good post, ray. Add to that the time to even evaluate and propose these changes, and the engineers are usually cut off before they can even start.

I have shipped more than one design with known problems, in my life. Every time, it was because I wasn’t allowed the schedule or budget to make the fix happen, not because I didn’t want to fix them. In most cases these were problems I inherited from predecessors, but also occasionally problems of my own making discovered too late in the game.

The schedule in the automotive market is brutal, with a need to release new models each fall probably routinely cutting short development efforts and debug time on new designs.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2018 KENWORTH T680 TANDEM AXLE SLEEPER (A59904)
2018 KENWORTH T680...
2003 Big Tex 10PI 16ft. T/A Pipe Top Utility Trailer (A55973)
2003 Big Tex 10PI...
2018 Autocar ACX Xpeditor T/A Hercules Front Loader Garbage Truck (A55852)
2018 Autocar ACX...
2016 John Deer 5075E (A60462)
2016 John Deer...
2013 Jeep Wrangler 4x4 SUV (A59231)
2013 Jeep Wrangler...
Kubota B2301 (A53317)
Kubota B2301 (A53317)
 
Top