How to be perfect
How to be perfect
(OP)
Hopefully this subject caught your attention. Yes it is a loaded topic.
I'm a mechanical engineer doing mechanical design of electronics equipment. Mostly fitting PC boards into machined aluminum enclosures. I started working in 2008 for a different company and have been with this one for a little over a year.
We have no mechanical design reviews.
We have no checkers.
We have nobody reviewing my drawings.
My question to you all:
I need to be perfect. How am I supposed to accomplish this task?
Thanks,
FR
I'm a mechanical engineer doing mechanical design of electronics equipment. Mostly fitting PC boards into machined aluminum enclosures. I started working in 2008 for a different company and have been with this one for a little over a year.
We have no mechanical design reviews.
We have no checkers.
We have nobody reviewing my drawings.
My question to you all:
I need to be perfect. How am I supposed to accomplish this task?
Thanks,
FR





RE: How to be perfect
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: How to be perfect
Seriously, it's hard to see the forest for the trees, especially on a daily basis. If you are basically a one man shop, the best thing to do is set aside your work for a couple of days, then go back and review your work. Chances are you will find your mistakes.
Using 3D CAD? Model as accurately as possible, section everything and check for sky scrapper issues between components and housing.
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Have you read FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies to make the best use of these Forums?
RE: How to be perfect
Your Monday morning eyes may have a different perspective than your Friday afternoon eyes.
RE: How to be perfect
- Never send/submit your work product right away. Even if you work late into the night, especially if you work late into the night, get the package ready, clean your desk, and get a good night's sleep. Review your work in the morning. You will find plenty of little things not worth bothering to fix (but do bother to fix them). ... and occasionally, you will find a serious brain fart that you have given yourself the opportunity to correct before it embarrasses you.
- Explain what you've done to your wife/hubby/S.O./cat/dog. Even if they don't understand any of it, the process of explaining tends to help _you_ understand what you've done. When their eyes glaze over, you have to explain better.
- Make a nice big print of your plan. Tape it to your desk.
Now go around to the other side and study it upside down.
Does it still make sense?
Is anything missing?
Could anything be removed?
- Wander around the manufacturing floor. Talk to the people. Ask them to tell you about the latest screwup from that idiot in the office. Tell them you are that idiot, and that you are trying to learn. ... from them. ... and that no, you are not willing to share your paycheck with them, but part of your mission is to make their working life a little easier.
- Now that you've got friends on the floor, use them to review your work. Show them sketches of stuff you're proposing to do, and ask them for suggestions of how to do it better. Make sure the sketches include a few obvious boners, to help you sort the real friends from the sycophants.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How to be perfect
Mike's second bullet is my method. I often work alone. Just the act of explaining what I did and why to another person is a great way to find flaws in my original thinking. The other person is usually my wife or one of my children, none of whom are engineers. I have also sat outside and made the explanation aloud to someone who isn't there. I make up questions that the ghost-person might ask and say them aloud. I've been caught having those fantasy conversations a few times. Fortunately the psychiatrist down the street hasn't busted me.
Mike, I like the upside-down thing too. LPS
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies
RE: How to be perfect
Certainly for me printing it out helps - I almost always find things when printed out that I miss on the screen.
Also being methodical in your checking - I typically check the notes, then the overall/out line dimensions, then size & location of all the other features etc. I tick things off on the hard copy as I go - yellow is keep the same, red is change/delete and I use blue if I make any comments or calculations or non mandatory changes (I use these colors on other folks work too and I believer they're fairly typical).
Trying to be perfect is pretty much unrealistic - however, being good enough is the important thing. (Sadly 'good enough' is sometimes debatable - from a documentation point of view my definition of good enough is pretty close to a lot of peoples perfect.)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: How to be perfect
Well, that's a problem right there; you can't be "perfect." And no one expects that.
>> That said, there are things you can do to minimize errors and omissions, like making and USING checklists. Even hospitals are now using checklists to make sure that the right patient is in the right operating room and the correct side of the patient is identified for surgery. Stories abound about patients Magic marking, "this arm to be operated on."
> Lessons learned. Keep track of errors, write them down, and identify and implement a policy or procedure or checklist item that would have caught that error. This is all part of "continuous process improvement" processes. This is particularly critical if it's some particular process that you don't do very often.
> Hold "peer reviews" if design reviews are not used. See if your company will pay for a couple of Costco pizzas for lunch time "mini" design reviews. Oddly, even free Costco pizzas will incentivize engineers.
TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: How to be perfect
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
RE: How to be perfect
I feel that a large percentage of these mistakes that occur at my small company could be prevented if ANYONE else looked at the design/drawing/schematic/diagram. There are 2-3 excellent engineers here, but they have no interest in working as a team. Is this typical? It was not at my last company.
My supervisor does not allow individuals to schedule our own design reviews, claiming that everyone is "too busy". He is a fine engineer, but in my opinion, has no idea how to run a department. (As proof: his fellow "directors" continually complain about him to me.)
RE: How to be perfect
Otherwise, do your best as apparently it's "good enough" from the corporate view, as they don't seem to have any motivation to change.
RE: How to be perfect
http://www.cad-portal.com/articles/art_details.php...
Having no real cooperation is a bit unusual, not making time for any kind of in depth design review and certainly drawing checking is all too common IMO.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: How to be perfect
I am in favor of informal peer reviews, as in helping your neighbor by spending a few minutes looking over his/her shoulder, or just discussing issues over lunch. If your peers won't do even that much for you, there must be a reason, and you need to figure out what it is Real Soon Now.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How to be perfect
You are required to meet a "standard of care". That does not include perfection...only that you achieve what other engineers practicing in the same discipline, in the same area, under similar conditions would be expected to do.
Perfection is undefined and nebulous...don't go there.
RE: How to be perfect
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: How to be perfect
RE: How to be perfect
KENAT, thanks for the resource!
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies
RE: How to be perfect
I like the idea of explaining your design to somebody else, even if it is outside their area of expertise. If you're explaining in a structured and logical manner, you very well could approach problem areas from a different vantage, finding things that could be added or improved.
old field guy
RE: How to be perfect
RE: How to be perfect
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies
RE: How to be perfect
I almost added the following to my last post, "HAHAHA, right!".
RE: How to be perfect
Not exactly whay you need but if you think deep, it actually is. Do the best you can and give in=t 100% and if that isn't enough to look to yout=r employer in the eye and tell him to find someoe perfrct.
I would write up a ist of requirements in order to to th ejob as close to perforct as humand=na are capable of and set up a meting and explian yoor position. There are plenty of jobs out there. I would find another.
- CJ
RE: How to be perfect
RE: How to be perfect
You can't be perfect and you need to realize it but you still have to think you can achieve perfection. Otherwise, everything you do will go to $#!+.
Life is paradox.
RE: How to be perfect
RE: How to be perfect
The difference between bad practice and good practice is proper FEEDBACK.
The best kind of feed back is not from other designers, but from people who implement and use your designs. TheBlacksmith has it nailed as far as I'm concerned. You wouldn't believe just how much people who implement and use your designs are willing to help you do your job better if you only have the humility to ask, listen and learn- and of course the wisdom to discern the good advice/feedback from the bad.
Input/review from other designers is helpful too- particularly the checking part, as they'll help you find errors that your brain can gloss right over after you've seen a drawing too many times. But as far as improving your design goes, review by other designers is only truly helpful if they too have received the sort of useful feedback noted above. Otherwise, they may transmit absolute bullsh*t to you with absolute authority, and some of that may stick.
RE: How to be perfect
You may have been able to reduce cost by 0.1% if you spent another 10 hours on the design, but if that is not asked of you then it is not required. There is a balance between perfect RESULTS, and efficiency.
The time required to literally achieve perfection has such diminishing returns, if you tried then your efficiency would plummet and your performance would not be acceptable. Nobody, in any market or business relationship, is ever prepared to pay for perfection.
RE: How to be perfect
Go to LinkedIn and you can bypass recruiters which makes you a less expensive hire. Also contact recruiters who can help you find exactly what you are looking for. They don't get paid unless they find you an employer and the employer pays. You aren't out anything.
CJ
- CJ