On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 14:23:11 -0600, you wrote: >No engineering project is EVER on budget. Forget about that one. And no >engineering project is EVER allowed a reasonable development schedule by >Marketing and Executive Management. Forget about that one too. The best you >can hope for is that EVENTUALLY it actually works as intended and specified -- > >hopefully before the customers get tired of you and your >not-quite-ready-for-prime-time product and go to the competition (if there is >any). > >Please note, I am not talking about Elecraft here -- rather all the companies >I've ever worked for. I have never worked for Elecraft. > >If I sound pessimistic and cynical, I'm really not. Those are just the >realities I've encountered in 35 years in high technology companies, both >small and large, as a hardware engineer and as a technical writer working >intimately with hardware and software engineering groups. If any of you have >actually had more positive REAL-WORLD experiences in this realm, I'd like to >know where! Seriously. :-) > >I've heard and read of military contractors in the World War II era like >Douglas Aircraft and others bringing in a new warplane on spec, ahead of >schedule, and under budget. They say it's true, and I believe it, I guess. But >whatever they were doing right in those days just doesn't happen any more. > >Bill W5WVO
[snip] Bill, you're thinking from the wrong end. Think of what's added now that they didn't have then. They didn't have the MBA degree and the CEO made 5 times as much as the man on the floor, not 5 million times as much. Beginning in 1942 at the "Bomber Plant" in Fort Worth, Texas Consolidated Aircraft built more than 4,000 B-24 Bombers during WW II. All without MBAs and today's insanely high paid CEOs. This unbelievable productivity was replicated throughout the USA from coast to coast. I've worked in several aircraft factories as a worker and manager since 1963 and all of that changed in the early 80's. The "Bomber Plant" in Fort Worth can't even deliver aircraft that they have been building since 1976 at a scheduled rate of a few per month. In 1980 they were delivering about 20 to 25 per month. Then the men and women form the WW II era began to retire and die. The ones in management were replaced by MBA's and the president of the division began giving the employees questionnaires to fill out rather than visiting the factory floor once a week for a look around and visit with the workers. I doubt that any employee in the plant has ever made eye contact with the top guy, much less shaken his hand. I believe that The folks at Elecraft are all on the same team with the same focus. I also have a suspicion that Eric and Wayne share the fruits of the teams labor fairly and evenly handedly. That's the way being successful is done. OK. I'm off the soap box now... Tom, N5GE - SWOT 3537 - Grid EM12jq "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin 1775 Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like. http://www.n5ge.com http://www.eQSL.cc/Member.cfm?N5GE _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
