A lesson learned while helping put himself through college came back to a plant engineer several times in his career. As a student, he ran a home-based auto repair business under his father’s direction.
He was having trouble replacing the brake hardware and drum shoes on one customer’s car. Noticing his son was taking too long, the father came over to see what was going on. “Son, those brakes aren’t made to be put on backwards.”
He was putting them on backwards because the old ones were backwards. He didn’t stop to think how the braking system worked and why one shoe was so much larger than the other.
How many of your repairs are “Monkey see, monkey do?” Three examples from the plant engineer’s career:
• Hot application motor replaced with one of standard temperature rating. Four times.
• Access cover replaced with screws missing (by three different crews); this isn’t just sloppy, it’s dangerous.
• Unlabeled wiring terminated as unlabeled because it was unlabeled to begin with.
Don’t let someone else’s inferior work be your standard for how to do your work. Ensure the equipment is right when you walk away.
