Friend of mine worked for a BIG government contractor that does trainloads of Defense work. They got hot & cold running "engineers" 99.9% of whom know EVERYTHING about nothing. The "engineers" are backed by "Craftsmen" who wear pull on boots cause they can't lace a pair up.
Most of what they ship is behind schedule and half is incomplete because nobody has any idea how to read the specs, let alone build it.
That is the accepted standard!
The company figured they loose money on every contract, but they make it up in Change Orders, Revisions, and Make it work jobs. This kid can think, and he can use his hands, so head hunters came after him, and he changed companies. He spent 6 weeks at the new shop reading books till his Department manager found out he isn't Electrical Engineer #712, he's the kid who can make the light come on and run the generator, and make the Diesel run too.
She spent an hour looking at his 72 Chevy with a Jake equipped Detroit & 18 speed RoadRanger, and decided she had a valuable employee she needs to keep if for no other reason than to be a translator who protects her from the fools.
This crap ain't new, it evolved from World War II manufacturing and the military. The reality is the country that had Deming sent him down the road, and built an industrial system based on many people who knew damn little. We had buildings full of people who moved pages of paper across desks who suddenly became unnecessary when the desktop computer came along, and they went down the road, WITH ATTITUDES.
Quickest way to set me off is when I hand written instructions to a man who don't know how to do a job, and he tells me he'll only read and learn on company time. Good luck with that attitude at your new job, cause this one just ended.
Cad systems are magnificent, WHEN THEY WORK. The computer says it works damn sure ain't pouring concrete or erecting steel yet though, and my hunch is it will be a while till it does. My last company spent a ton of money helping high school robotics kids build their toys. We made every dollar back because we had access to the manufacturers of that equipment and our people knew the 411 on robotics. When we sold the company to the banker backed geniuses with Degrees, and a business plan the bankers loved, the robotics program slipped out the back door to another shop who would and did continue it. Guess which company survived the economy busting out?
US manufacturing has screwed itself with too many people who can only perform a single job. The system is failing badly when people sit around waiting for the next instruction rather than shifting to another task when a problem needs to be solved. I've walked into too many places where the first thing I was told was how many dollars a minute the problem they were waiting for me to solve was costing the company. Gee, how many dollars an hour are you paying all the clowns who were supposed to prevent the problem and didn't. Lets not even get into the added costs for all the meetings mandated by Insurance Carriers and Government Agencies.
We well may have passed the point we can get back from. I'm fairly sure if a miracle happened tomorrow and Rochester gained 75,000 manufacturing jobs we wouldn't have the electricity to light the shops and run the machinery.
