Old Engineer Memories – Number 6: Simple And The Best
Can you remember being a young Engineer many years ago and listening to the old Engineers talk about how things have changed over the years? Old Engineer Memories – Number 6: Simple And The Best takes you on a journey back to Engineering in the 1960’s/70’s/80’s
And now it’s your turn to look back on your Memories.
If you are a younger Engineer wondering what things were like – all those years ago – Ask one of the older guys to explain.
You Know That You Are An Old Engineer …..
Old Engineer Memories – Your set of Drawing Instruments was one of your most prized possession.
- When you can remember tuning the carburetor on your car
- You still have your first (and only) set of drawing instruments and they are in pristine condition
- You still use these drawing instruments
- You can remember when there was more waste product on the factory floor than good product in the machine and the company (you worked for) was happy to throw labor at cleaning up the mess, but not to assign an Engineering resource to design out the problems
- You can remember reading about some guy called Demming who had some radical ideas on quality and production techniques and you knew that they would never take off
- You can remember when your best Engineering Designs were formulated on the back of a drink coaster/cigarette packet/napkin – in the bar after work – the designs always got better as the evening went on
- You can remember when all trains where big and shiny, gave off lots of smoke and were driven by steam
- You can remember the old style earth moving excavators which had jibs and buckets activated by wire rope. (I know that because I worked on them)
- You can remember when SNAFU was the favorite saying
- You can remember when there was an office full of (predominantly) females sitting in front of loud, manual, mechanical typewriters and they had to manually hit the return at the end of each line
Not Only – But Also….
When there is a need to take a deep breath and take a break
- Go to List Of Pages – Engineering Nostalgia for more pages of memories
- Regardless of your current status – always ask the question – Is there a Better Way and
visit the 3R web page for an overview of the 3R Philosophy Review – Refresh – Reset - Whenever possible – always follow the KISS Principle
- Challenge yourself and your colleagues with an Engineering Quiz