Topic: Improving the Standard of Work

[Fish]

Jonesy, I agree its a lack of knowledge and probably out right laziness.  When I went to school for drafting it was an actual 2 year degree type class, now the class is obsolete, they've replaced the 2yr. class with an 8 hour class to get people doing basic (and I mean basic) cad drawings.  I've been drafting for 16 yrs and I'm still learning.

Good luck to you.

[Arizona]

but if I carry on tidying their rubbish, they'll never get any different, and I'll get more frustrated...

Boy does this sound like the "Mum" in you coming out

"Clean up your stuff...I'm not doing this for you anymore"

[Krushert]

I am dealing with Opinions.

Everyone thinks that their way is the only way do things and think that everyone else way is wrong. 

I have one brown noser that has change the font style on the title block to suit his own liking.  The handful of people that that followed the few standards, were furious.  At our yearly review we demanded cad standards.  They said okay and set up lunch time meetings, all of four, to discuss standards.  The first thing we tackled was how to work xrefs.  This turned into a fiasco.  Everybody had a different opinion on this subject <and rightfully so> and turned very heated.  We never got beyond xrefs. 

All we wanted was the title block offender and another offender to be corrected.  Nothing ever happen to those people.
 :realmad: :realmad: :realmad:

I have become the guy that manages & fixes the software.  I have then sneeked in some customization and try to educate the users.  Those that follow standards use it, those that think that they know better don’t.

<After reading this I come to the conclusion that I am doing is ranting,  Please read it for what it is>

[Maverick®]

  Meetings to get input are great.  But there has to be a boss.  Someone who has the authority (right or wrong) to say "this is what we are doing".  With all the power and trappings that go with it.

[jonesy]

but if I carry on tidying their rubbish, they'll never get any different, and I'll get more frustrated...

Boy does this sound like the "Mum" in you coming out

"Clean up your stuff...I'm not doing this for you anymore"

but at least my kids do what I say... well more often that not

[pmvliet]

I have one brown noser that has change the font style on the title block to suit his own liking.  The handful of people that that followed the few standards, were furious.  At our yearly review we demanded cad standards.  They said okay and set up lunch time meetings, all of four, to discuss standards.  The first thing we tackled was how to work xrefs.  This turned into a fiasco.  Everybody had a different opinion on this subject <and rightfully so> and turned very heated.  We never got beyond xrefs. 

At my previous place of emplyment, we had a CADD Standards committee. For a good 18 months, they discussed the titleblock. In the end, there were 2 different titleblocks because one group would not compromise. And lets not discuss the standard text height!   :ugly:

Commitee's also don't make good CADD Standards. I believe that no matter what size the company, CADD Standards should be decided by one person. The Commitee might exist to give recommendations and general consensus, but one person should have the power to excecute something and have the ability to enforce it.

Anyway, back to what she is asking help for.
2 hours a week is not even close. You probably need 2 hours a day! (are you doing support issues as well?) With every 5th day devoted entirely to customization, R&D etc. They key for this to actually happen is you need to find someone (hopefully your boss) who understands exactly what you are dealing with. Sit down with them, at lunch, after work and have a heart to heart and explain things. Tell them why it's hurting the company, but also give him options on what can be done. You have to do this every chance you get, and hopefully you'll be given more time.

For example, the layer routine you are working on. Create a simple email, define the problem, give examples of a specific drawing. outline the routine you are creating and explain in detail how it will eliminate the problem. It is just about mandantory that you turn a CADD issue into a money issue as most management types understand money. If it currently takes a user 15 minutes to do a task, and with this routine the user can accomplish the same task within seconds, you will get their attention.

Pieter

[jonesy]

Our standards have been set by our head office so we are all supposed to be using them, and now I have the authority to enforce them.

Thanks for that advice Pieter. I have people to train tomorrow morning, but I will try to put an email together after that, to try to get extra time allocated to the customising and sytem management. So "watch this space".

[Maverick®]

I suppose it would be inappropriate to carry a whip around and beat whoever didn't comply.  Probably quicker though. 

[Greg B]

I suppose it would be inappropriate to carry a whip around and beat whoever didn't comply.  Probably quicker though. 

Some might enjoy it too much...

[Maverick®]

Some might enjoy it too much...

  I would think the novelty would wear off for her after a while though.   

[Greg B]

Some might enjoy it too much...

  I would think the novelty would wear off for her after a while though.   

*nudge mav*

[edited = not right for this thread]  I went to far...sorry Jonesy!

[Arizona]

Great advice Pieter! You are right about everything relates to money.

[pmvliet]

Great advice Pieter! You are right about everything relates to money.

Well, I started with just being a drafter and pretty much created my own title of division Cadd Coordinator.
Along with that, came it's own title and some power. But I went from 100% billable to probably only 10-20% billable. The rest of my time was devoted to this very issue.
Thats when I was doing a lunch-n-learn once a month. Talking with users on a daily basis.
Starting to streamline things and make progress. Learning routines and what kind of optios were out there.

The thing that really made a difference was from a class I took at Last years AU in talking about Return on Investment. The ROI of an upgrade and how to take a simple item and associating a cost to it. When I produced some hard dollar figure facts, it became very hard to ignore.

Word to the wise... it's a very, very fine line on pushing and pushing too hard...
The rest is history and that's why I'm my own boss now... (for the time being)

Pieter

[CADaver]

I have 2 hours a week I can allocate to cad manager role, (including training!) everything else has to be charged to a job)

So much for "all the backing you need".  IMMHO, two hours a week isn't even a good start.  We have everything already in place and it takes longer than that to maintain it.  To set it up will take more like two hours a day... every day ... for a year.

You can get a start with customization by getting the easy things out of the way first, layer formats, dimstyles, text styles, etc. that can be setup easily in templates with a few simple list functions to insure elements on the right layers.  After that, look for the easiest to gain compliance from everybody.  Once people get in the habit of complying with your standards, it gets easier to get compliance the next time.

The thing that bugs me, is that we are a BIG multi-national company with standards to follow (these standards have been in place for more than 2 years. If someone from head-office came to check our work, we'd be stuffed.

Sounds like your standards are set (at least some of them) what you need now are methods that make it easier to comply than not.

I simply HAVE to get some semi-automation in there. (again, this will probably have to be done by me, in my own time...

okay, I'm going to say this just once and quietly.  If it’s worth you doing it, it’s worth paying you for.  Now I've done a bunch of stuff just to learn how it was done and improve my marketability, but it’s a rare day when I donate my time to an organization that makes a heck of a lot more money than I do, especially if they see no more importance in it than two hours a week..  A lot of the development I've done over the years has been on billable contracts, if they are seeing the benefit of the development, why not the cost?

[jonesy]

I have 2 hours a week I can allocate to cad manager role, (including training!) everything else has to be charged to a job)

So much for "all the backing you need".  IMMHO, two hours a week isn't even a good start.  We have everything already in place and it takes longer than that to maintain it.  To set it up will take more like two hours a day... every day ... for a year.

Two hours a week is a bit more than I had before, and I sometimes get a bit more time if I have managed to get ahead of myself with workload.

You can get a start with customization by getting the easy things out of the way first, layer formats, dimstyles, text styles, etc. that can be setup easily in templates with a few simple list functions to insure elements on the right layers.  After that, look for the easiest to gain compliance from everybody.  Once people get in the habit of complying with your standards, it gets easier to get compliance the next time.

Templates are already there. What I need to do is find some way of making sure they start a drawing with a template... not with a blank drawing.

The thing that bugs me, is that we are a BIG multi-national company with standards to follow (these standards have been in place for more than 2 years. If someone from head-office came to check our work, we'd be stuffed.

Sounds like your standards are set (at least some of them) what you need now are methods that make it easier to comply than not.

The standards are there, they have been long before our company was bought out. Our local office menu is slowly growing, but I guess I need to get a pgp file locked onto all machines, and also a way of making it difficult to NOT draw to standards

I simply HAVE to get some semi-automation in there. (again, this will probably have to be done by me, in my own time...

okay, I'm going to say this just once and quietly.  If it’s worth you doing it, it’s worth paying you for.  Now I've done a bunch of stuff just to learn how it was done and improve my marketability, but it’s a rare day when I donate my time to an organization that makes a heck of a lot more money than I do, especially if they see no more importance in it than two hours a week..  A lot of the development I've done over the years has been on billable contracts, if they are seeing the benefit of the development, why not the cost?

I see your point, and thoroughly agree with it. I annoys me that they say they want good quality drawings to be sent out, but theres no money set aside to do it, and the contracts are cut so close to the profit line, so theres no money in the budget to invest in things that WILL save us time and money in the future. I will sit down in a short while and get that email that Pieter advised, written to the boss