engineers biggest issues and wishes 12

[IoanaP]

Hello everyone,

As an engineer, what are the two biggest issues you’re dealing with?

In terms of career, what’s your biggest wish?

 

[IRstuff]

0.8
0.8 + 0.8 * 0.2 = 0.96
0.96 + 0.8 * 0.04 = 0.992

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[CWB1]

I would argue that your product-definition process has failed miserably if management needs to make a decision mid-project as to the scope of work. Every project should start with a requirements doc that's based on a risk assessment, which then gets translated into a Gantt chart to define the work, schedule, and costs involved. You're done when the requirements are met, no more, no less.

 

[rotw]

This assumes 100% effectiveness at each pass (no recycling) ; however is it not that the later the rework/fixtures are done the more costly it becomes?

 

[Tim Moss]

I work for a subcontract CNC Turning company. I really enjoy it but one of the biggest challenges facing this industry is the skill shortage. This is a big problem as a lot of skilled engineers are approaching retirement age and there doesn’t seem to be enough youth coming through the ranks.

 

[bridgebuster]

Two biggest issues:

Oblivious young people. To them it's all about models and number crunching. Drawings and specs are irrelevant. I tell them to study bridge plans to understand what's going on but it goes in ear and out the other. I tell them a contractor only wants three things from us: 1)what do you want me to build; 2)how do I get paid for it; and 3)don't ask me to read your mind. They think I'm joking.

Disinterested management. My boss doesn't want to know anything about what we're working on. There are some weeks if we exchange 10 words that's a lot. All he cares about is staying on the good side of the people above him. They're even less interested in things than he is.

Biggest wish:

I second the motion!

859 calendar days to go, Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, as they say, but who's counting.

 

[geotechguy1]

Bad or good, its a rational move. The country is spending significant money to sustain incoming migrants. On the other hand, migrants are bringing inflow of money AND provide a readily available and sustained labor workforce to jobs that do not require special qualifications (long-haul truck drivers, front desk hotel managers, executive housekeepers, industrial butchers and meat cutters, food and beverage servers, farm-workers, livestock workers, etc.). All said and done, if the current policy was at economical disadvantage for Canada, be sure that the decision makers would have stopped it immediately.
Media/news tend to focus on few success stories. The truth is that the most majority of skilled professionals are becoming deluded.

The current policy isn't really coherent - the provinces control licensure for engineering and the training of engineering students, the federal government largely controls the mix of immigrants and the entrance of engineers. It's not a coherent policy.

 

[Bill West]

IRstuff, 80% calcs on Feb 24:
I wasn't observing people coming back and catching up what was incomplete from the previous round. I was thinking more of they left off 20% of the job the first time because they didn't appreciate the value of completing the minority features, they can take more effort. Then they did an update and left off more features because they had become the new minority 20%.

The disproportionate cost point is valid but how well the product performs all the tasks the customer expects of it counts too. If a multi-bit screw driver has 6 bits but one is only used 5% of the time a bean counter could drop that 6th bit. But if I have to buy a second screwdriver for 5% of my work I'm going to drop the bean counter's company .

Bill

 

[sushmithagowda]

maybe a Team Lead or Managers.


<a href="

https://nearlearn.com/machine-learning-classroom-training-in-bangalore-india

">machine learning course in Bangalore</a>

 

[ornerynorsk]

Biggest issues: Excess paperwork and ambiguously written regulatory standards, the former caused by the latter. Who has time to re-do everything in this day and age?
Biggest wish: God willing, retirement in early 2021, I am super stoked about it.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[Mahendra Gupta]

Being an engineer you are always keen on learning and implementing the technical knowledge and often overlook the people skills(soft skills). Soft skills are rather more important when it comes to doing well in career irrespective of the profession or the stream you work in.

I think most engineers face these issues during their initial years in the field i.e. building a strong network of people and getting the work done. Hence, engineers would wish to bring soft skills into project management practices to get a better hang of working collaboratively with others.

After all it's all about bringing your best to the table, and enabling others to do the same!

 

[IoanaP]

@Mahendra, what are the soft skills you're mentioning?

 

[BrianPetersen]

Biggest issue? Standards (and laws) written by ivory-tower people who have no clue about the real world implications of what they're writing and how to implement what they're writing in the real world.

 

[FACS]

Biggest issue? Standards (and laws) written by ivory-tower people who have no clue about the real world implications of what they're writing and how to implement what they're writing in the real world.

That's rather vague. Do you have examples?
There is a big difference between standards and Laws.

 

[CWB1]

There is a big difference between standards and Laws.

Like many other things in life, it depends on who you are speaking with. Legally regulated min/max limits are commonly referred to as "standards" in industry, ie engine emissions standards or standard of care. In the military, unless you comply with regulation you're also not "meeting the standard."

Emissions standards are my personal favorite when discussing the aforementioned ivory-tower crowd as standards have been a negative quadratic for 52 years now, and are about to make a big leap into negative territory.

 

[FACS]

Emissions standards are my personal favorite when discussing the aforementioned ivory-tower crowd as standards have been a negative quadratic for 52 years now, and are about to make a big leap into negative territory.

That's rather vague. Do you have examples?

 

[IRstuff]

Not sure which emissions standards being referred to, but auto emissions have been reduced so that we have 60% fewer unhealthy air days than in the 70s.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[FACS]

I'm curious how 52-years was proven to be the "negative quadratic" time span. Also, what a "big leap into negative territory" means in this case, since the negative quadratic has already been established....


Curious

 

[CWB1]

The Clean Air Act went into effect stateside with 1968MY vehicles, hence 52 years of vehicle emissions limits imposed. Every few years we have been forced to take a bigger leap toward zero-emissions, hence a graph of emissions vs time showing a negative quadratic (an "upside-down" parabola as some students say). If you follow the trend, in the next few years we will have engines producing negative (less than zero) emissions.

Future implications of that example aside, the trend itself is simply illogical, hence why its a favorite example in discussion of the ivory-tower govt/academic crowd.

 

[IRstuff]

Would you rather have children suffer with asthma and coughing their lungs out while they run around in Stage 2 smog? It literally sucked, and not being about to see an 8-story school library from 2 blocks away because of the smog is not a student-friendly learning environment.

Despite whatever the individual car emissions might be, their aggregate across the US continues to increase year by year.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[Mahendra Gupta]

Hi @IoanaP when I mentioned soft skills essential for an engineer, I meant leadership skills and being a team player who values efforts and inputs from other members, creative thinking, emotional intelligence(EQ) and effective communication. The response to this thread is quite interesting!