posted February 06, 2004 03:50 PM               

Remember that over the life of a machine, material is probably 70% of the cost- machinery and labor are relatively cheap (which, by the way, is a great reason to spend a little bit more and get the best machinery).

If you attend Plastics Engineering school, you'll hear more about the importance of cost (of material) than in any other discipline of engineering (mechanical, electrical, etc.).

posted February 06, 2004 06:28 PM               

Every department in a business has something important to contribute to the satisfaction of customers and generation of profit. If a department is ignored, problems will results. If all departments have the ability to contribute to the above goals, as in a team effort,there is a better likleyhood of success.

So in the above case there could be a hypothetical team meeting discussing how to make the product. The engineering dept. will say "we need the same raw material all the time in order to make the product". The product manager will say "we need raw material flexibility in order to be price competitive". The team should realize that the prodcut manager has trumpted the engineering department becasue if the product is not competitive, there is no business and therefore no jobs. The ball is now back in the engineering department to figure out how to design the process to handle variations in the raw materials.

The smart engineering manager will negotiate a range of properties that the raw material will meet so there is some degree of control. In a perfect world the engineering department can then budget the capital cost requirements to tool up for the product, and production should be able to readily handle the variations in raw materials that ar supplied.

Well, anyone who has worked in plastics knows this process rarely happens. Even if it does happen, it is very difficult for the engineering dept, to design dies and such to handle a wide range of raw materials. Rather than fight for right, the engineers give up and "work hard" to chase the uncontrolled changes. The engineers end up frustrated as described in the initial post, but all agree that the engineers are working hard to keep up.

I am an engineer, so I feel justified in criticizing engineers for the poor job that they do in this situation.

Many engineers are so passive they will not fight for what they know is right, and just work hard to keep up with the changes and justify their jobs.

Many engineers are so passive that they will not investigate or propose new technologies that could dramatically improve these situations and their employers profitability. Instead they just work hard to keep up with the changes and justify their jobs.

This practice of working hard to keep up with the changes and justify their jobs is just plain dishonest. So many engineers participate in this practice it is a crime.

Most managers have no idea that this practice is going on. These managers are the ones that created the situation in the first place because of their dictatorial style. These managers are incompetent. It is sad how many companies pay good money to employ people under these conditions.

If the owners of the company seem satisfied with the current situation, I would suggest moving on.

Through my ranting you may have guessed I been involed from all ends of these situations in the past. My prefered way of making a living now is to try and provide companies with technologies that will help in the conditons as described in the original post. If anyone is interested in more details about those technologies, please email me.

Tom C

posted February 08, 2004 11:47 AM               

To compliment cost control's, an Internal as well as an External "Customer Correction Notice" (ICCN & ECCN) system should be put in place.

Only when this is done, will change occur.

In general, I would think that the purchasing department be replaced by people who are savvy to the written definition of requirements that should be written for each material, as well as writing a comprehensive Raw Material Speciifcation.

When loss's are incurred, the "TEAM" players are then quickly identified as the ROOT CAUSE.

posted February 09, 2004 10:55 AM               

GIGO

Garbage in Garbage out.