On Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:32:53 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


Jim Wilkins wrote:

On Dec 24, 10:43 pm, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:
...
I was told I could take the next day off if I wanted, but I just had
to be there to see the look on the QC peoples faces when they couldn't
even get to their desks for the dozens of carts full of boards waiting
for inspection. Boy, were they ****ed! Their boss told them to stop
wasting time and get busy. One said it would take a week to finish, but
was told that if one tech could do it in nine hours overtime, the two
should have no problem finishing before 1:00 pm.

Bumper sticker:
"Technicians do what engineers can only dream of"

I later worked with the tech who custom-made it.


I was handed some original prototypes once to prove the design was
OK, and that we didn't know what were were doing. After spending half a
day cleaning up the thick rosin flux and crappy solder work that
'engineer' was famous for, it had the same problems as the production
items.

I could clear out the entire engineering department with nothing more
than a blank piece of paper, and a ticked off look. I guess they thought
the paper was for taking names, after I finished kicking asses? They
knew they couldn't put me of with a phony promise, like the other techs.
If I found a problem, I researched it, wrote it up and took it to the
one responsible. If they ignore me, I stopped all work on the product
involved. It only took one time, and a hint at a second before they
knew that I didn't take 'NO', and questioned them when they said 'YES".
Sounds like the case where our contractor was forced to pay upwards of
$5,000 for an environmental control box from a major international
supplier, which gave us nothing but trouble at the final acceptance
stage. When I asked our engineers to consider a re-design of the
control system, their answer was that they were too busy. I grabbed an
Electro-sonic catalog and played around for half a day before I came
up with a design that could be assembled from about $300.00 worth of
parts. When I presented it to them for approval, after two weeks they
came up with one modification which lowered the cost by $7.00. Two
years latter they discovered that I had altered the design due to the
discontinuance of one component and threatened to have me reprimanded
for unauthorized changes in "their" design, I let them proceed
(actually I sugested that they make love with themselves) and when
confronted by upper management, I presented my original design
paperwork, signed off by the then department head. End of story!
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada