Re: Space Shuttle Syndrome!
- From: "Bill Noble" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:20:53 -0700
"Buerste" <knotbrush@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:xGghm.110871$rg4.106888@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've been out of the shop for quite a number of weeks now due to experimenting with drugs. (Kaiser's idea, not mine) Anyway, I've handled most everything I need to at home with a phone and a laptop. However, one of my engineers working on a long-term project that is really a bunch of short-term projects bolted together, has gone off the deep end. A simple mechanism that's supposed to have 3 limit switches bolted on some PVC pipe mounted in plywood. It will have a wire coming from a spool pass through it and the switches will turn on and off a feed unit as the wire gets tight or loose. The third switch turns everything off if the wire jams up. I penciled on a sheet of paper what I wanted not thinking it wasn't worth CAD drawings.
In my absence, the engineer has created the most complicated Rube Goldberg monster that he possibly could. I was in the shop yesterday to review everything and was shown the CAD drawings of all 20 of the precision parts. Since we need three of these mechanisms and there's more than one each of the parts needed for each mechanism, the machining time has run into weeks. ( I planned an afternoon for the PVC/Plywood version.)
I don't want to stifle creativity or initiative but WTF! Is there an official name for this or have I coined the phrase?
giving you a serious answer - it is called "mis-communication" - the engineer understood that you wanted a mechanism designed with certain characteristics - he didn't understand the other constraints. Not being there at the time, I can't tell you why this is, but I've been on both ends of it - did you actually say, you can use 3 switches, some plywood and some PVC pipe - this is to be "cheap and dirty"? if you said it, did he really understand it? this is not a matter of stifling creativity - you don't have to punish the guy (yet) but you do need to say "that's not what I had in mind", explain what is wrong, and ask him how HE would suggest getting back to your original intent.
When I had a lab of folks, I always "encouraged" failure, within some limits - by that I mean, that if someone wanted to take an approach that I was suspicious of, AND if it would not be fatal to the project, I would express my reservations and say "go try it your way, but be on the lookout for these issues" - sometimes their way was great, but if they ran into the kinds of issues I pointed out and it got to be a problem, then there was buy in to "my" way rather than having it dictated - this was much more effective, and I got much better results - at least with every employee who wanted to achieve results. I had a couple who were worthless, and could not do anything - those had to go
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