The other day someone asked how I could practice law so long. Hmmmm, well it’s because I started as an engineer – and I was a bad one! So I had the good sense to get out early and change careers.
But not before I learned some great lessons.
Engineers get a bad rap (which reminds me of my favorite engineer joke – at the end of this note). They’re really not that different; rather, they’re smart people that tend to be obsessively analytical and have taken their training to heart. It’s not that they stubbornly see the world in black and white, void of any gray. Rather, they maniacally work to eliminate any “gray” that may exist.
Virginia Tech is really a top notch engineering school. The school’s motto should be “elegance” because they teach it well. The best answer to any problem is the simplest answer – the most elegant. The best example of this is the old VW bug. Do you remember the windshield washer – it was powered by the air pressure from the spare tire – uber elegant!
Elegance dovetails nicely into another great tool engineers use – Root Cause Analysis. Once again at its core it’s very simple – the answer to any problem is always one thing, identify it and you can elegantly address the problem.
I had the privilege to learn this from the best – Ford Motor Company, when I was (no really) an engineer working in the auto industry. Ford demanded perfection. Part defects were monitored relentlessly. Fall out of compliance and a supplier was forced to perform a Root Cause Analysis – the dreaded Form 8D.
It was a bureaucratic nightmare, the professional equivalent of writing 100 times on the chalkboard “I will not make that mistake again.” But it had its value – almost like a technical version of confession. It was nicknamed the “5 whys” because it forced a supplier to analyze an issue through 5 layers to get to the Root Cause.
Why wasn’t the clip on the part? The machine didn’t load the next clip
Why? The next clip in the hopper was bent
Why? It got bent when the new box of clips was loaded
Why? There’s too much force and movement in the loading process
Why? It was done on a Friday by a worker that couldn’t wait to clock out (no, that’s not acceptable. But you get the picture).
You run through that analysis and it doesn’t take long (or much of an engineer) to realize that the Root Cause is your loading process and perhaps you need to improve it.
You get the picture.
We all need to take advantage of the extra time we have today and apply a little Root Cause Analysis to where we are. Our home, family, community, nation.
More to follow.
THE BEST ENGINEER JOKE EVER
A priest, doctor, lawyer and engineer were playing golf one day. The group ahead of them was very slow and frustrating. The lawyer complained to the golf pro.
“Yes” the pro noted, “there was a fire here last year, those are the firemen that saved the club house. We let them play for free. Sadly they were all blinded in the fire.”
“Oh heavens” said the priest, “I’ll say a prayer for them.”
“Horrible” said the lawyer, “I’m going to set up a trust for their children.”
“I know a good eye doctor I’ll contact for them” said the doctor.
The engineer looked at everyone exasperated:
“Can’t they just play at night?”
Hokiejackson 
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