Does Engineering Technology Serve Your Purpose?

I see a lot of people who get wrapped around the axle on philosophical issues with their CAD, PDM, or general engineering and documentation processes. They’ve got a problem that they claim is unsolvable, but the reason it isn’t getting solved is because they won’t allow it to be solved. It’s usually over some very small point of semantics. They can’t believe that the whole engineering technology world built their tools in such a way that it doesn’t allow sometimes something as small as verbiage to match their 70 year old pre-digital process.

The people who oppose change are exactly who you think they’re going to be. The main impediment isn’t usually nostalgia (although that’s always a factor), it’s more often the lack of imagination – or maybe more accurately it’s the inability to adjust how you connect change with improvement without moving through fear. You can identify who these people are going to be, and in the case of this one particular company, I held the hands of each of the resistant individuals all the way through the process from baby steps to full steam ahead. In the end, we helped each other. They saw I was sincere about the changes and the improvements, and I had real reasons for wanting change, and they also saw that I took their fears seriously, and was willing to prove out ideas with the biggest skeptics. And they helped me sort through which ideas were really the best and which were kind of weak.

I’m fond of nostalgia. My grandparents were my favorite people, and I love bluegrass music. I own a bunch of “vintage” stuff. But technology is no place for nostalgia. You really can’t live in the past when it comes to technology. I do believe that just because an idea is new doesn’t make it great technology, and something being popular also doesn’t make it a good idea. You have to progress selectively, not in a knee-jerk fashion jumping into the first shiny object you see, but technology moves on and we have to progress. At the same time we have to help progress find the right path, because it doesn’t always find it on its own.

My first PDM implementation was at a company 20+ years ago. I took them from putting revision levels in Autocad file names stored in sequentially named folders to a Sql vault with workflow routing and web access. The process of taking this company through the entire spectrum really taught me a lot not only about technology, and the combination of technology and people, but also just about people. About psychology, why we resist, and how to talk to people about things that frighten them when that fear is probably irrational.

What’s frustrating to me is when I’m in a less formal role helping someone, and they are resistant. I’m just offering advice, and I can see a clear path forward, yet they are stubborn and resolved that there is no solution. I don’t really have any leverage, but at the same time I don’t want to give up because I can see the solution. Even after walking them right up to it and spoon feeding it to them, they still resist. It’s not a difference of opinion, it’s the inability to see the value in a good idea.

Product development is so full of these philosophical roadblocks. People latch on to ideas and absolutely won’t let go. You have part numbering, sequential, intelligent or semi-intelligent? Revisioning or even replacing with a new part number. There are all sorts of firmly held dogmas around the process of revising documents that make the Crusades look like a lovers quarrel. File names – should it be the part number? a descriptive name? a random serial number? Each of these topics and more make for very acrimonious department meetings and lunch breaks.

So I guess what I’m getting at is that if you have a problem that is stubbornly not getting solved, step back and try to see what is preventing it from getting solved. Is there some philosophical impasse? Is it really as important as it looks? Is the technology serving you or are you serving the technology? Does someone believe they have a technological solution? Make sure that you aren’t standing in the way needlessly. Yes, I do believe there is a time to resist change. Not all changes are created equal. Some changes truly are bad ideas. But when you have the opportunity to make progress and a method presents itself, take the time to evaluate if the distance you would have to move to get out of the way is really such an inconvenience or not.