Trivialties

No Time For Low Priority Issues

Company “A” saved money in the short run by not investing overhead costs in training or maintaining their design software functionality.

They learned quickly that their AutoCAD users needed training and now need to look into updating obsolete software. As things were going well (as far as management knew), nothing was done in either area. The company doubled the number of AutoCAD users to increase the output. With the new staff came untrained operators who needed AutoCAD licenses, causing more reuse of obsolete software versions. Now they were too busy to worry about non-design work.

Reality Set In

The poor documentation became apparent as the product was scrutinized to improve current designs. This set management into panic mode. How did this happen, and why were we (management) unaware? This reaction is expected, with the mindset that company “A” took.

As the company looked into increasing its product margins, it began trying to correct this. Consistency in their product became paramount.