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By Design News Staff -- Design News, May 5, 2003
Engineers can be arrogant too
I have to agree with several items you had mentioned in your Flipside column (DN 01.13.03) titled "Wanted: Leaders." The first has to do with engineering arrogance. The nightmare I've seen happen at a manufacturing plant I've worked in for 42 years has been part number assignment. The management never placed enough importance on having a person work full time being responsible for part numbers.
The second item that hit home was the lack of anticipation for manufacturing problems. Most of the new engineers and their bosses had no experience in "hands-on" building or manufacturing the product at our plant.
It had been a year or so prior to that scene I had taught an in-house class on "designing for manufacture." In it I requested that all take a tour thru the plant and become familiar with the machines and their capabilities. Also, ask for suggestions from the skilled labor on making the part easier to produce.
One cannot be expected to know all that exists in the plant, but don't be so arrogant to not ask or too lazy to search for the right person who can help eliminate hardship and confusion.
Stan Smith STATE COLLEGE, PA
Tool of Choice
Following up on your Flipside column (DN 02.03.03), many, moons ago our design group included a structural/civil engineer. He soon became known as a "shovel " engineer, as in, get the "shovel engineer" to help on that design. The shovel engineer was constantly reminded that shovel engineers were of a lower caste than electronic designers. This all changed one day when the shovel engineer arrived to pronounce that the United States had spent millions of man hours and billions of dollars to send a man to the moon. Naturally, the first engineer on the moon took out his most important tool, and he started digging with his shovel.
Harris Rush ASHEBORO, NC
Simplicity in Design
Shame on you for suggesting (Flipside, DN 02.03.03) that a design as tried and true as the shovel should require a significant amount of engineering research and development. I was taught in engineering school to keep designs simple and functional. I was also taught to keep manufacturing processes simple and costs to a minimum. Since the beginning of the Iron Age, man has been optimizing the shovel: the design, the function, and the process. The greatest leap in shovel technology probably came during the early parts of the last century. Frederick Taylor (the famed industrial engineer) spent a great deal of time optimizing the design of the shovel blade. Size and shape were both critical elements behind being able to move a great deal of pig iron during a given period of time without compromising the safety of the person. Prior to Taylor, some would say that a shovel was just a shovel.
I would contend that the failure of your shovel handle was not so much an issue of poor design, but rather an exercise in economics. As for your parting paragraph, send me your shovel. I would be more than glad to replace the handle with one that works for me.
Brent Bowers MARYSVILLE, OH
Pet Health
Your Animal Crackers article (Flipside, DN 02.17.03) brought a smile to my eyes. Although I have enjoyed the pets our family has had, when the animal was sick and suffering I chose not to extend that suffering for our family's own emotional benefit. Needless to say we have all lived through each pet's demise. Granted, we did have trash-can funerals and shoebox coffins.
Which brings me to a surprise I received a few weeks ago. I was at the Market America National Leadership Convention in Miami when a new online pet health store was unveiled. The leading product in the store is OPC for cats and dogs. It is selling like hotcakes! OPC-3 (Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins) is a nutritional supplement introduced years ago for humans. I truly enjoyed your article and did chuckle a few times. Radiation for a goldfish does seem just a bit excessive to me.
Connie Jolly CLINTON TOWNSHIP, MI
Disgusted
I read with disgust your column "On The Road" (Flipside, DN 03.03.03). What nonsense! You try to portray SUV and truck owners as a bunch of evil people trying their darndest to kill everybody on the road and to destroy the planet in the meantime. I have done quite a bit of traveling and I have not witnessed SUV drivers to be any worse than anybody else. "Why does he even need that SUV in the city?" You ask this about the man in the Navigator. Could it be that he may have 6 kids and needs something that will carry home groceries as well as a couple sheets of plywood? How about a few kids and their hockey bags? You probably never considered these reasons.
Phil Halonen HOUGHTON, MI
Others Drive Crazy Too
Jump on the anti-SUV bandwagon (Flipside, DN 03.03.03). I could write the same article about all the idiots in snow covered Volvo's and Saab's that pass me and tailgate me on 95 North. Hypocrisy? The speed limit on the Mass Pike is 65 MPH.
Ron Swain READING, MA
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