Paul,
I am always puzzled by the reluctance for management to support the
tools and the people needed to run these tools. If you think about it -
the whole revenue generating process is about successfully completing
projects. The engineering\design staff on these projects are ultimately
responsible for supporting the overhead costs of the entire company -
the president, v.p's, office admin, HR, Accounting, IT, sales, travel,
leasing ... I have recommended very good people only to have them
rejected because they cost $5/hr more than "Joe Average".
In my mind most companies have too many people (and thus too much
overhead) in the mix - this blurb is about some of the issues we face
and where I think the future is going.
Plant Design SW Pitfalls
- Management - lack of understanding of: skills required, effective
training and staffing, the strengths and weaknesses of the
software\hardware, resource management - unrealistic expectations
- Engineers - unwilling to adopt new practices
- Designers - poor teamwork, failure to adopt standards
- Support Staff - key personnel, has the power to do the most good
and the most harm- how do you judge them if you don't understand what
they do - when possible don't have all your eggs in one basket.
- Don't fight the software - new tools often require a change in
work practices
- Checking - the power of the software is in automation, the
checking process must still be taken seriously - checking now requires
reviewing "log" files.
- Unrealistic Expectations - compressed schedules, last minute
staffing
- Failure to Exploit the software - takes a while to figure out how
to make the best use of all the features
- Software Bugs - need to understand that they exist, effects can
usually be minimized by careful planning\checking - generally never be
the 1st to adopt a new version
- Complicated - it is not AutoCAD, don't treat it like it is
High-End SW Advantages
- Market Share - software has a solid user base, the projects
modeled are very valuable and clients are likely to want to reuse the
data
- Add-ons - more & more 3rd party add-ons becoming available to
extend capabilities
- Data Reuse - proper planning allows data to be reused through all
aspects of project and potentially on new projects
- Automation - more & more can be done with less people
- Tight Integration of Disciplines
- New Software - next generation software is tightly integrated with
standard business products - MS Office, email, web
- Don't fight the software - consider adopting "out of the box"
configurations as new standards - most of the work has already been done
- Checking - the power of the software is in automating the design
process
- Data Management - features to assist in managing project data
integrity on a file and user basis - very important on large projects
- Complicated - you never master the best software - you always find
room for growth no matter how long you use it
What does Higher-End Software (increased capabilities and automation)
get you?
- Less people are required to do the same work
- Less people reduces the number of costly software licenses
required
- Less people reduces hardware costs
- Less support staff required - IT, HR, Admin
- Less people means less office space required
- Less people means a more manageable office
- Less people means more daily interaction, less meetings, less
surprises - more effective communication
- Less people allows for better use of technology - voice
recognition, ...
- Less people allows for a less costly and easier implementation of
new technology - Increased Efficiency
- Less people means it is easier to manage the down times
- Initial training costs will be higher, should be supplemented with
yearly updates (in-house)
- The average engineering\design salary will be higher
How to leverage High-End Software
- Monitor your software usage - EVERY company I have been with has
been carrying more than they needed - a lot of companies still pay
maintenance on obsolete engineering software that is no longer being
used because the IT department gets an invoice and doesn't know what it
is for but still pays it.
- Everyone has a role - Mentoring - not all tasks require years of
experience, some tasks can be delegated to capable junior staff who
receive specific training
- Isolate tasks, set achievable goals and hold people accountable
for achieving these goals
- Partner technical experts with experienced field staff
- It is cheaper to hire 10 experts who will command above average
salaries than it is to hire 20 who struggle to achieve lesser results
- It's all about building a team - make it the best work place
environment - if engineers and designers are well compensated they will
stay put - not many of us really want to change jobs\locations every 2-3
years. For the in-between times encourage people to take extended
periods off. Most of us would take a couple of months off if we are
given a fixed start and end date for the furlough in advance.
Paul Hawco
Mechanical Engineer
Neill & Gunter (Nova Scotia) Limited
http://www.neillandgunter.com <http://www.neillandgunter.com/>
130 Eileen Stubbs Ave, Suite 1 South
Dartmouth, NS, Canada B3B 2C4
Phone 902-434-7331 x1296
Fax 902-462-1660
From: PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com [mailto:PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Paul Bowers
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 9:09 PM
To: PipingDesign@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [PipingDesign] Re: simple taskes turned complicated
aluser2 wrote:
> geez geoff I'm sure releived to hear someone saying this. I thought i
was
> going nuts.
> I cant tell you the number of screw ups ive had to fix after huge
money was
> wasted and
> work was paid for that was c...p ... and then they want an even
cheaper fix
> and the money is gone. Everybody is behind the eight ball , time,
money,
> schedule, and the fixes suddenly have all sorts of impacts.. cant do
this,
> cant do that. Youre quickly the bad guy then asking for what should
have
> been done in the first place and the cost is now WAY higher....
>
> ..but hey in accounting terms you can have three newbies for the price
of
> one. >>>3x more profitable right. Unfortunately the bullies dont
disappear.
There seems to be a lot of overhead to be paid for these days (IT
departments, hardware, software, etc.), leaving proportionately less
available for design work.
Work expands to fill the budgetted hours allocated. Once the 3D models
are completed and isos generated, the work is done.
Paul
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Received on Thu Sep 08 10:24:00 2005