[TheForge] [Bulk] Re: rant concerning quality of products (Getting way OT )

[Bruce Freeman]

Sorry about that, but on this forum you may have to put blinders on.
I've checked out of other forums because I found their content
objectionable, but usually it was because of diatribes, not
obscenities.   I strongly suspect that you're referring to the
language of my very good friend, Andy Vida.  If you knew him, you
might let it ride.  Andy is one of the most opinionated persons I
know, but there's usually good thought and content in what he says,
even if he uses a myriad of obscenities to convey the thought and even
if I disagree entirely with his conclusions.

It is important to understand that I consider Andy one of my best
friends in the world, to the extent that I confide in him information
and ideas I share with few others.  I disagree profoundly with much of
what Andy (and many other folks on this forum) embrace. These include
such topics as unions versus management, gun ownership vs. control,
and many other controversial topics.  One thing I've learned over the
years is that however strongly I may believe something, that doesn't
mean I'm right.  (That applies to other people, too!)

So, remember that nothing that appears on this forum is anything more
than letters on "paper."  Maybe someday someone will come up with
euphemism software that takes any incoming text and converts "hell" to
"heck", etc.  Until then, I suggest you do that mentally and simply
not read objectionable words.

More to the point, I'd like to recount a few experiences of my own in
a now-defunct company that elucidate my reasons for blaming
management, not the worker.

The company was Electronic Associates Inc., of West Long Branch, NJ.
I'd been hired on as an expert in gas chromatography, but that was a
minor product line.  Basically EAI was THE premier manufacturer of
analog computers and hybrid (digitally-controlled analog) computers in
the world.

In our first chapter, we consider the machine shop versus the bean
counters.  EAI had a machine shop with some fairly nice metalworking
equipment and staff who knew how to run them.  Initially, the machine
shop had an overhead account to charge for such things as equipment
maintenance and idle time (when no work was in the shop).  Then the
bean counters (accountants, and the idiot managers who employ them)
decided that ALL machine shop work should be charged to projects.
Okay, along comes project manager Joe Dimwit.  He submits a job to the
machine shop for a few brackets.  Unfortunately, the machine shop has
no other work that week, so ALL of the expenses to the machine shop
get charged to Joe Dimwit's project.  Which forces Joe WAY over
budget.  Next time Joe has metalwork needs, he bypasses the in-house
machine shop and goes to a 3rd party shop which quotes him a price and
holds to it.  Joe no longer goes over budget.  But the amount of work
for the machine shop has just dropped even more, making instances like
this more frequent.  Pretty soon the machine shop is completely idle
and the bean counters close it down, sell off the machines and fire
the employees.  And some bean counter gets a bonus for saving the
company money.

Can't happen twice?  Think again:

In our second chapter, we consider the circuit board production floor
versus the bean counters.  Some brilliant bean counter tallies up the
cost of producing the ANALOG circuit boards needed for EAI computers.
He then seeks quotes from outside vendors and finds that they can do
PC boards for MUCH less money.  Paperwork goes through, facility gets
shut down, equipment sold off, people fired.  Eventually they run low
on their stock of boards and put out an order for more.  ONLY NOW they
specify the quality of the boards needed.  It seems that ANALOG boards
are highly susceptible to cross-talk between adjacent conductors,
whereas digital boards shrug that off.  (I could explain this better,
but will spare you.)  NOW the costs of the outside-produced boards are
WAY more than what the in-house facility (which is no longer there)
had been costing.  Too late.  Gone!  (I knew the fellow who headed up
that operation and got most of this from him.  I saw the line
disassembled.)

 But that's not all.  Consider the "motivational managers" versus the
computer programmers.  At one point in my stay I had shown by a simple
graph that a new concept a manager had come up with was BS.  That
wasn't good enough, so I had to spend the next four months
substantiating it by computer calculations.   I didn't have a computer
at my disposal, but fortunately we had lots of computers on the floor
being configured for customer's projects.  (A major product line of
EAI was power-plant simulators which could be simple training tools or
could look exactly like a power plant control room.  These were used
to train operators.  Many failure modes were built in, so, for
instance, a nuclear power plant simulator could be programed into
China syndrome to set the trainee operators scrambling.  Obviously,
this too considerable computer power.  Remember that this wa sthe
early 1980's when gigabyte memory was available not on a device you
could put on your key chain, but on a multi-layer 14" platter disk.)
So, I spent time out on the production floor.  Since I was not up on
the latest and greatest "Fortran 77", and  since IBM computer manuals
are useful only for checking format when you "almost" knew the answer
anyway, I needed to consult with the programmers a lot.  This was a
fascinating experience.  I would ask a question.  Instantly I was
center of attention for one or more programmers, who would explain in
great detail how things worked.  (Mostly they were right.)  A half
hour later I realized I was getting no more information , but had no
way to shut off the flow.  I could NOT risk offending these blokes,
because often they were my ONLY source of info. So, I typically
"discovered" I had an appt. with the boss and would have to continue
the very interesting discussion later.  I then left and came back
later and by this means actually accomplished more than I would have
otherwise.
Yet the programmers were WAY behind on their work.  The shell software
was a particular problem - never getting completed as far as I know.
This ultimately led to EAI defaulting on several multi-million dollar
contracts.  (The German govt. had the sheriff in to close off the
floor where their elaborate simulator was being built.  They hauled it
away and presumably completed the programming themselves.)
So what led to all this?  I spoke with the programmers over the few
months and found that from their standpoints they were actually
behaving quite reasonably.  They had been hired in to do a job.  They
didn't have all the knowledge they needed to do it.  When they
requested training, they were denied.  Hence, they spent a
considerable portion of their time STUDYING HOW to do what they needed
to do.  Their morale was in the pits.  Yet, I, a casual observer,
could learn this in a month or two, but the managers they reported to
were apparently oblivious.

I understand (and can't document) that the Harvard business school
taught that a good manager could manage anything.  Unfortunately, they
apparently never turned out a "good manager."

I was "brought up" in a para-academic environment, where I see people
getting advanced degrees, etc.  In my experience, many of these folks
are quite bright.  And some are even dumber.  I see very little
difference in raw intelligence between these folk and the folks I meet
at blacksmithing event.

-- 
Bruce
NJ

The total lack of evidence is the surest sign that the conspiracy is working.