Engineering
From my engineering experience at a handful of companies through the years, there are two themes that seem familiar everywhere I go.
As long as the engineers do not pass through their fixed cost allowances, most of them really want to make the best product they can.
The company has absolutely no interest in designing something the last any longer than the warranty, for however long that is for said product.
If any of my fellow engineers have designs that are too expensive, they are immediately told to cheapen it out. Sometimes you can add money in places and take it away and others that don't matter. And then it works out.
In other areas if they can make a very robust design without being too expensive then the company really does not care.
Sometimes designs are lifted from other models or products and pasted in, with the assumption that they will be OK. Usually the engineers are right, sometimes they're wrong and a customer gets burned.
A lot of times marketing will dictate features or demand features taken away which could affect other parts of a product. These can have negative or positive consequences. Sometimes it's no big deal but a lot of times there's no time to repair the design before it goes to market.
Just installing my own GE dishwasher a month ago, I could see some of this evidence. There were some real smartly designed items. There were other things that look too rushed, other areas were manufacturing might've screwed up. And other areas where parts were clearly cost reduced but still seem OK.
Just my experience.
From my engineering experience at a handful of companies through the years, there are two themes that seem familiar everywhere I go.
As long as the engineers do not pass through their fixed cost allowances, most of them really want to make the best product they can.
The company has absolutely no interest in designing something the last any longer than the warranty, for however long that is for said product.
If any of my fellow engineers have designs that are too expensive, they are immediately told to cheapen it out. Sometimes you can add money in places and take it away and others that don't matter. And then it works out.
In other areas if they can make a very robust design without being too expensive then the company really does not care.
Sometimes designs are lifted from other models or products and pasted in, with the assumption that they will be OK. Usually the engineers are right, sometimes they're wrong and a customer gets burned.
A lot of times marketing will dictate features or demand features taken away which could affect other parts of a product. These can have negative or positive consequences. Sometimes it's no big deal but a lot of times there's no time to repair the design before it goes to market.
Just installing my own GE dishwasher a month ago, I could see some of this evidence. There were some real smartly designed items. There were other things that look too rushed, other areas were manufacturing might've screwed up. And other areas where parts were clearly cost reduced but still seem OK.
Just my experience.
