[Re: OT- Drooling at the VW dealer today]

[allenk@blkbox.com (Allen Kitchen)]

To mirror what Larry has said:  

Most engineers, unless they are in a Tiger Team and have to get their hands
dirty, don't see much of their work.  They design it, hand it over to 
fabrication,
then go on to the next problem.  Folks who work in smaller groups usually
have to have troubleshooting experience as well before they can get the
job as the task requires refining and modification on-the-fly.  

But the big reason maintenance isn't a concern for the design
is one simple fact; why should it be?  The manufacturer is concerned
with building the cars fast enough and inexpensively enough to make a 
profit.
That's it.  If there are two ways to put in an engine and one of them would
make maintenance easy but add a hour to assembly, they'll choose
the fast way of assembly, every time.  No car company makes money by
going out of its way to make the cars easy to maintain.  In fact, it can
be argued that making them so difficult that all the cars _must_ return
to a dealer for repairs would improve the company's bottom line
significantly.

And no, I do _not_ design _my_ stuff that way!  I spent too many years
fixing avionics and reaching into blind holes to disconnect stuff to ever
make such lousy designs.  My stuff works and can be worked on.  Too
bad my last project isn't going to fly after all.  Who put this bean-counter
in charge of NASA, anyway?

Sorry.  Rambling.  EEs who are out of work do that :)

Allen Kitchen
88 16V 1.8L Scirocco "Durandal"