Bench Talk

I try not to be a snob. Early on in my engineering career, I was taken down a peg or two after graduation. I had this shiny new degree I was ready to try out, but engineering is a lot more than academic knowledge. After a few months of working, I realized that there was a large amount that I did not know. All the subjects I took were preparing me to be an engineer. But you cannot discount the learning associated with doing. 

The best use of a degree is to step you up in knowledge so you at least have the ability to understand enough to learn more. You also need to speak the same language as your on-the-job teachers, and a degree teaches you how to speak with other engineers. That’s why a mechanical engineer takes at least one semester of Circuits, and electrical engineers take Physics, Statics, and/or Dynamics. Everyone has a different map of the world in their heads, so cut others some slack if it takes a little longer to explain something. This is just good manners, but what happens when the other engineer isn’t an engineer and communicating is like trying to talk to an alien about something on your turf? 

Here’s my personal example: I was putting in an HVAC control system for a large building and wanted to know how the motor controls for a particular air handling unit were wired. I asked the project engineer (his given title) from the controls company that had won the bid to show me where the current sensing relay was located. He merely pointed at the general location within the mechanical room, so I asked him to show me in a wiring diagram. I expected to see a ladder diagram or some organized sketch showing the order in which all devices and safeties were in electrical relation to the motor. He stalled. Then he grabbed my clipboard and scribbled a bit, then handed it back to me. It looked like this: 

The term “spaghetti code” comes to mind, but this is a spaghetti wiring diagram. In reality, the wiring job must have looked like someone had tied wire onto a squirrel and let it go. All I wanted to know was where one device was electrically located in relation to the motor and the rest of the motor control circuit. 

I asked him if he had much experience in managing electrical projects, and he stated that he had been installing control systems for 5 years. I tried again to get the information I needed, but it was no use, and he started to get flustered, so I backed off. 

He simply did not understand what I was asking. I was a bit stunned. How can you install control systems for 5 years without understanding what was going on? How do you verify quality … or safety, for that matter? I reluctantly thanked him, and then went to find the electrician, who was able to draw me a motor control diagram. It turns out that the “project engineer” had a business degree. I felt like a snob, but I was irked that the controls company had sent someone that could not communicate about what they were supposed to be in charge of. Maybe they were cutting labor costs, but I could see how this was a setup for a costly, or even deadly, accident waiting to happen. They had put the guy in a position to fail with little understanding of what he was supervising. 

In my opinion, it’s far better to pay a little more and get the right tool for the job. Sometimes you get lucky and it doesn’t matter, or you’re in a pinch and you have to MacGyver something, but jerry-rigging something out of necessity should be avoided. I once spent 3 hours trying to find an open in a simple house wiring circuit because I didn’t want to buy a $20 tool to enable me to twist the heavy-gauge wiring so the wires would stay together inside the wiring nut. The potential for frustration and wasted time is just not worth it. And call me a snob, but I feel the same way about engineers in engineering roles; if the person cannot communicate on fundamental issues with co-workers or customers, then they shouldn’t be doing that job. The same is true for buying parts from authorized distributors versus a source that might sell it cheaper because it’s counterfeit (this is a total plug for Mouser Electronics, an authorized distributor for all kinds of products). There’s a “chain of custody” with an authorized distributor. If a part fails and the manufacturer says it’s not theirs (even though it might have their name on it), then the warranty will not apply. 

What do you think? Is requiring purchases from authorized distributors being a snob or just plain smart specification writing? Nothing and no one is perfectly fool-proof, but degrees and authorized distributors are a worthy hurdle, in my opinion.