Common Sense 101 - Engineering - December 16, 2012 Edition

Common Sense 101: Engineering
modern manufacturing techniques. (I speak from experience, having spent the first 21 years of my life in
India.) If you make it hard from them to manufacture what you design, they might find it too hard.
And there’s an additional benefit getting your stuff made by less expert workers—it keeps your costs
down. Which is what you want to be competitive, right? Where’s the point in manufacturing something if
your competitors prevent it from being sold?
What you want is to keep your product competitive, and part of making it competitive means keeping it
cheap to make. And it stands to reason that the simpler it is, the cheaper it is to build. Why wouldn’t it be?
True, designing something to be simple to build is sometimes a bit of a challenge, but that’s what engineers
are for—designing the product well to begin with. The people who make the stuff that’s been designed by
engineers don’t have to be engineers themselves. But you’re going to be an engineer, right? That’s what
they’ll be paying you for, so make sure you earn your paycheck!
Graze on my lips; and if those hills be dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.
(William Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis”.)
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