Engineers, a mystery, Let your kids grow up to be engineers?
Yea the world would be better if there where only machinist; engineers are either dumb or sadistic
; a machinist could design it better. Here is the ideal machinist airplane, all straight cuts:
Sometimes things are complex on purpose?
Why do mechanics and especially machinist, complain and widely misunderstand what engineers do. There is some truth to every stereotype but it?s mostly a lack of communication.
Now a day the designer (who may not be an engineer) makes a sold element CAD model and the computer figures out how to machine it and warns if there's a violation of basic machinability rules. It knows what the cutter can and can't do.
The machinist just downloads the computers instructions and pushes a button and watches the "run". The computer has already done all the work and planning. The whole operation is automatic after setup.
Of course it does not help to have the perfect design if you can't make it, use it or maintain it. Also clearly a good machinist is part sculpture and part highly skilled technician.
A part that's easy to machine does not make it good, if it doesn't function as needed.
Believe it or not engineers are fairly intelligent and not all thumbs. A top design criterion is producibility, along with the other 100 criteria. Sometimes the design pushes the ability of production techniques. The fact is it's NOT EASY. There are 100's of requirements and compromises. Sometimes it means a part or the assembly will be hard to make or assemble. Sometimes a new process is needed or developed.
Just about every thing we have in our modern life, including our RV's are from engineers. Richard Vangrunsven is an engineer by both education and professional work experience (before Vans A/C). People complain about the RV kits, especially the early ones. Yep, Van makes mistakes, but so do machinist, mechanics and builders, who can make colossal mess-ups. People say how superior their idea is and how poor another designs are without knowing much about the design. If you never designed anything before, sit down and design and analyze something complex, than build try to build it; it isn?t easy.
Here is the truth and why engineers don't do themselves any favors. Engineers are naturally a bit of a mystery, since their job is part creative, design, analysis, math, science, physics, economics, ergonomics, production and marketing to name a few.
If you don't have a background in math, science and physics it can seem like a mystery. It's the language engineers speak. It's also one of the only jobs where working can be sitting and staring into space, and that is considered perfectly normal.
The one big mistake in engineering is usually communication. In the last 20 years there has been a push to have design teams include management, engineers, mechanics, machinist and the customer to improve the design through better communication. Like Hawkeye7A said its NOT new. Good engineers worked closely work with the shop.
Kelly Johnson (F-80, F-104, U2, SR71) back in the 50's put the engineers in the hanger, right with the mechanics making parts. He was way ahead of his time and why he created great unprecedented aircraft and did so in record time. It is kind of the norm now.
Not every engineer is Richard Vangrunsven or Kelly Johnson either. The idea the general public and technicians have of engineers is distorted or void. I have been on both sides. I was a ship fitter before I went to college. I loved it, but when I saw the engineers in their climate controlled building while I was freezing or melting on the steel year round outside, college and an engineering degree was looking better. Some jobs are tough physically and others are more mental, but that is where the pride comes in. Tough jobs are more satisfying.
I saw engineering mess-ups at the ship yard and later at Boeing when I was an engineer for a time. Yep, it was almost always a communication breakdown. One time at the shipyard I had to cut a huge section out the side of a super structure. It was just placed on the deck and welded down the day before. Unfortunately large equipment (chillers) should have been positioned under the super structure before it was dropped in place. Yep, as a ship fitter I thought the engineers where dumb. The engineers got it right; it was the down stream planners that got it out of sequence, supervisors who allowed the structure to be set down before the equip. whoops. BUT if the engineers would have left the comfort of the engineering building and walked out to check this major milestone, they would have caught the error. That's one reason why I went back to school and chose engineering. However as Murphy the great philosopher said, stuff happens.
Many companies have engineers work on the shop floor for sometime. Not sure how busting their knuckles help them, but it gives them an appreciation of the shop. Also some engineering is very theoretical in advanced areas, like new materials. Those folks don't require the ability to change their own car oil. It takes all types.
Also "engineer" is such an abused title; a garbage man is a sanitation engineer and train driver is also an engineer. Try just calling your self Doctor or Lawyer and see who comes knocking. Engineers let anyone be called an engineer. It really is hard to describe what engineers do, since sometimes they just sit their staring into space, literally, thinking about all the factors to juggle. Computers are great, but there is still a little genius behind every great design, whether its a bread-toaster or an airplane. Engineers deserve a little more respect than they get. Like any field there are good and not so good ones. Also a lot of so called "engineering" is not done by engineers, because why? They don't want to pay them and a warm body will do.
The sad part is the USA is losing the technical edge. We need more engineers, but people put the engineering profession down in this country and just don't understand it or appreciate it. It?s just not sexy to say, I'm an engineer. So kids are not interested. It's a hard degree to get. They look at how 5 years typical with lots of math and physics and head for the hills (and an art history degree). They also see what they get paid. Engineers are not grossly overpaid. However as with all big companies benefits are being cut. Many big companies are trying to use more foreign engineers from countries like India, with reckless abandon. You think communication is bad with customer tech support phone lines, wait till the next Boeing is made by Sambhddha or Naganalatha, I mean Dave and Heather. Love to see the parts those parts machined.
With globalization, skilled labor is not going to be part of the American dream anymore, at least if you want to make money, because China has a billion machinists ready to make that part cheaper. There will aways be some skilled labor, but if they can off shore it, they will.
Engineers have an identity crisis. When I was an engineer, if it came up at a party, I'd get "Oh, one of those".
That's may be why I switched to airline pilot, at least people have an idea of what I do.
However if your kids have a talent for math and science, engineering can be a great career. I can't predict the future of engineering, but it will probably always involve a machinist complaining about how hard parts are to make.
Most engineers are not out to make parts harder machine, however something like airplanes for example are just complex. If you want it simple than the plane for you is pictured above. I whine and cry when I can't get at a bolt, but I don't blame the engineer; We need them.
