It is truly a challenge and highly frustrating to try and properly convert the
 wants, needs and desires from Engineering to Management and back again,
 especially when technical issues are involved.  Management is typically
 convinced that engineers do not have their eye on the real agenda (staying
 profitable) and engineers are convinced that managers have no grasp of reality
 in the trenches.

 Sitting in the middle of this and having been on both sides of the fence, I am
 continually struck by how little both sides typically actually LISTEN to each
 other. Then these usual communication issues are confounded by the fact that
 the two groups are effectively talking in two separate languages.

 Steve: Blow off some steam, but then take a different tack.  Learn their world
 a bit, and learn to speak their language.

 Want a new wave machine?  Prove to them that the reduction in rework, the
 gains in throughput, etc. translate to real $$$$$$.  This is the only language
 management understands.  And do it in a G_d D_mn Power Point Presentation with
 a overhead in a meeting.

 BTW: Improve Quality? Don't use this as an argument. For all a company's
 posturing and verbiage, quality as driven by management typically only
 improves when the customer is insisting OR it can be tied directly to the
 bottom line in EXTREMELY visible fashion.

 As much as it sucks and it shouldn't be, manufacturing is a game. Learn to
 play the game to your advantage.

 Rob Green

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: [TN] How to run a manufacturing operation....
Author:  "Stephen R. Gregory" <[log in to unmask]> at smtplink-hadco
Date:    10/9/99 9:18 PM


Hi all,

I suppose I was rather harsh in my last email, but I won't apologize for the
basic truths. Earl stated it, as I will I, management has a obligation and a
responsibilty to know (at least), how their factory makes it's living.

It may not be important that they know all the nitty-gritty details about the
processes, but it is important that they know the basics about what it takes
to get certain things get done...guys like me and Earl will take care of the
details.

What we need is support! When we say that the equipment we have needs to be
upgraded to handle the business that will be coming, or that the way we
process our product needs to be changed (involving a change in the way that
things were done in the past) it's not a egotistical preference, but it's
something that makes economical sense, and something that will make the job
easier for everybody...not to mention more profitable.

I think back to all the jobs that I've held in the past, and why I have left
those jobs, it's not because of the people I've worked shoulder-to-shoulder
with (I wish I could've taken a lot of the people with me!), it's been
because of the management. Because of the management of the organization, we
were always given an impossible task with the resources that we had, and then
thoroughly chastised because we didn't make a profit...

Before you mangement people do that, you had better understand what's going
on on your manufacturing floor before you wind-up sticking your foot in your
mouth, or worse, losing the respect of the workforce that you're supposed to
be managing.

If I sound frustrated, I am....

-Steve Gregory-

P.S. I really hope that some management people read this!! But they'll
probably blow it off as some rantings from a disgruntled engineer..

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