Thursday, February 10, 2005

Engineering Measurement

Engineers love to measure things..."the complexities of specifics"...

We measure physical things like process equipment to fit them into a building...
We measure abstract things like loads in order to size systems to accommodate those loads...
We measure individual capacities to determine overall system throughput...

We also measure our progress during the design projects...

Most engineering systems are based on the earned value system using the engineering man-hour as the basic unit of measurement. Success is defined as the gaining exactly 1 hour of progress for each man-hour burned.

Welcome to the world of Project Controls...

Seems easy enough...earned versus burned...

and we know, that when the project controls measurement says we are 100.00% complete...
we can declare victory...
our work here is done...
not any sooner, and certainly not any later...

The project was obviously a success...it's time for the celebration!!!

What???!!!...

You had other concerns???...other issues???...

But we're finished!!!...Didn't you see the Status Report?


I think this leads directly to a whole 'nother topic...


Do engineers measure the right things?

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