Come on… take that next step!

As engineers we all know about the physics of inertia and momentum.  Let’s see if I can relate these principles first to life and then to the development of mechanical products.  I know, you’re no doubt wondering "what’s this guy been smoking?" (no, as a long hair in the 60’s, I did not inhale!)… but humor me for a few paragraphs.  Here goes… I’ve been watching my youngest son, a 3 year old, as he advances from life focus to life focus.  Talk about acceleration… we had Barney for what seems like an eternity, then Sesame, Bananas in Pajamas, Superman went by like a speeding bullet, and we’re now on our 35th daily change of Batman action figures.  This kid has momentum! And I was priding myself in the stability of a 25-year career with one (great) company.  I had inertia.  Within a career or crossing into a new career… within a project or as we re-engineer the product development process… let’s make sure we’re moving forward, building a momentum that will be our strategic differentiation.

Engineering as a "Strategic Weapon"

Engineering at progressive companies is viewed as a strategic weapon rather than a cost center.  In this somewhat regular "column" I’ll try to characterize just what makes such companies progressive, with a specific focus on CAD/PLM-centric issues that span from management topics to end-user techniques.  True to form, I’ll be a bit the "cowboy" that tries to cut through management rhetoric and user smokescreens in hopes of inciting you to build your own momentum.

Professor Flachmeister, it’s all your fault!

From this elevated soapbox I could be dangerous, as a certain friendly professor can attest.  Professor Flachmeister (name changed to protect the guilty), an engineering professor at a leading German university, was extremely nice in offering to drive me from the site of a German PLM user conference to the Frankfurt airport. 

It was one of those idyllic scenes of late afternoon autumn colors mapped onto the rolling Franken hills.  I’m afraid I broke the serenity when I blurted out in my cowboy-accented German, without preamble… "It’s all your fault!".  Professor Flachmeister calmly inquired as to which global catastrophe he was to blame.  Having built a momentum (see how important momentum is?), I clarified that it’s the fault of his profession that all the world’s engineering talent has been thoroughly brainwashed.  At this point I was glad that the quintessential German is a bit difficult to rattle, as my friend the professor continued to deftly navigate the winding, hilly roads at 160 kph.  I continued with the punch line… infants and toddlers develop within a world of 3D building blocks (and yes, highly sculpted action figures)… but what my good professor does when they enter his freshman engineering course is to flatten their minds onto the 2D world of the engineering drawing.  You know, orthographic projections, just the right line weights, proper arrowheads, and (ach, Du Lieber!) it better pass the ISO standards!

The good professor protested with a defense of the technology investments his university has made in workstations, hundreds of 2D CAD licenses, and even some 3D CAD for the fourth and fifth year students.  You know, get the students properly rooted (an "inertia" word!) in 2D before you let them graduate into 3D solid and finite element modeling.  Aha… there’s the 3D-to-2D brainwash… I had him!

And lo, a brilliant progressive idea came upon the professor (things always seem to stick better when it’s their – your customer’s or your manager’s – idea).  He’d redesign his curriculum to start with 3D! As Professor Flachmeister’s revelation gained its own momentum, I must admit I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the incomparable German countryside, a rather pesty cowboy now gemütlich in the saddle. 

If you don’t push yourself…

… if you don’t improve the process by which you develop mechanical products, then simply put, your competition will eat your lunch and have your profits for dessert!

If you’re in management, don’t make the mistake of equating process with tools and therefore abdicate process improvement to the end-users.  If you’re an end-user, don’t fall for the trap that says task productivity delivers process benefits.  Process re-engineering starts and ends with a complete vertical integration of management and users focused on business benefits. 

I just knew I’d get on my high horse and blab all through this column.  But before I sign off for now, how about a few little bombshells for thought…

If you’re teaching 2D design to college students… go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 Deutschmarks!

If the majority of your users are happy designers with 2D CAD… reward them by sending them to a 3D design class and require that all future designs start in 3D. 

If your designers are all cruising with 3D CAD… pop those fun questions on them… what’s the margin of safety under worst case loading? any natural frequencies in the operating speed range? what’s your strategy for cooling that thing? Push your designers to ask engineering questions. 

If your analysts are great at all that finite element stuff… require that they optimize (with realistic design constraints) a design that they just analyzed… and follow the redesign all the way through production tooling. 

If your project engineers haven’t had the time to learn CAD/PLM (they’re always in meetings)… fix it! Getting these folks to replace their back-of-the-napkin sketches with 3D models is key to re-engineering the process. 

If your VP of engineering can’t run a simple 3D design session… fix it! Managers and executives must be engaged in the process.  Getting even a half day of hands-on experience will boost their confidence, increase their credibility, and be a testimonial to the entire team that engineering is indeed a strategic weapon. 

And finally, if you’re interested in pushing yourself and your engineering process… let me know your thoughts, challenge my cowboy opinions, pose some pointed questions.  Let’s get moving and convert inertia into momentum!

A 35-year veteran of the computer-aided design, engineering and product lifecycle marketplace, Wayne McClelland is well-known as an energetic pioneer in the development and implementation of technologies for structural dynamics, finite element analysis, 3D solid modeling, and workgroup data management.  Wayne can be reached at waynemcc@wamware.com or www.wamware.com.