Cadalyst - January/February 2009 - (Page 39) cadmanager I’ve always found that a willingness to hop into CAD production work in a pinch has endeared me to my users over the years and has kept me on the cutting edge of managing CAD tools for my clients. If senior management sees that you are versatile enough to be a CAD manager along with all your other duties and be able to pinch hit in production, they’re more likely to retain you in the event of layoffs. Recommendations. Talk with all project leaders to get an idea of when CAD production crunches will hit. By forecasting these periods of high CAD demand, you can schedule your own time so you’re able to pinch hit on production work. Remember that being able to relieve these temporary production strains will minimize staff overhead and help you meet those crucial deadlines at the same time. As you help with production work, remember to view the experience from a CAD user’s perspective and keep a list of things you can do as CAD manager to improve that environment. standards require training (to alleviate user questions). The hard part of this exercise is finding the time to do it. Master IT and CAD Programming The simple truth about CAD managers who can program is that they can customize their CAD tools to achieve higher efficiency. By creating custom AutoLISP, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), or even custom toolbars and menus, they can simplify complex tasks so CAD users can get more done in less time with fewer errors. CAD managers who have a working knowledge of IT topics also can control their users’ network environment more easily and quickly than those who must rely on outside IT resources. I’ve also found that programming and IT skills have enabled me to work on a wider variety of projects over the years, thus giving me more employment opportunities. Staying employed in a tight economy is all about having as many skills and options as possible. Recommendations. Read books about programming and IT topics; try to tackle one chapter per week in your off time. Get a cheap, used computer to hook up a basic network at home to learn about network concepts and configuration. Attend an evening IT or programming course at a community college or extension school. Scour the Internet for blogs that teach programming topics that interest you, and you’ll be shocked how much information is available. The key to learning these complex topics is to take it slow and not expect to learn everything overnight. Clean House Sometimes we get so caught up in new projects, new software implementation, and other diversions that we forget that a well-organized CAD library (symbols, standards details, and so forth) contributes greatly to productivity. Organizing CAD libraries might not be a cutting-edge CAD management task, but clean libraries do allow users to find what they need quickly and without tech support. The bottom line is that it’s easy to become disorganized over time, and that disorganization will negatively affect the productivity of all your CAD users. Recommendations. Go through your network drives and identify all the CAD-related blocks, details, and drawings that you believe to be junk. Next, route an e-mail message to all your CAD users to see if anyone objects to deleting all those files. Let all CAD users know that you’re cleaning house and that you’ll be pestering them until everything is organized. Following the cleanup, you can think about revising your CAD libraries to support any new standards you develop. Don’t Get Depressed As someone who’s owned a business for 18 years and been an engineer for 25, I can tell you that economic downturns are part of the technical environment. This recession will be the fourth I’ve experienced in my career, and I feel confident that this one shall pass, as the others have. I can tell you with certainty that those willing to help their companies weather the down times will emerge battle tested, with an improved skill set and solid resume to support growth when things improve. Do your best to roll with the changes and use my recommendations to be part of your company’s solution for surviving tough times. Until next time. Robert Green performs CAD programming and consulting throughout the United States and Canada. His book, Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide is now available. Reach him via his web site at www.cad-manager.com. Standardize and Train Light project loads, if and when they occur, present an opportunity to examine and optimize standards and procedures. Because your staff size will probably be at its smallest, you’ll have the unique chance to change standards and procedures with as little impact as possible on users, projects, and deadlines. In a very real sense, this downturn will allow you to lay the groundwork for emerging from the recession as a leaner, meaner, standards-driven operation. Don’t forget that your CAD users need to be aware of what you’re doing and trained to carry out the changes. Recommendations. Ask yourself which standards questions your users have most often. Think back on the past few years and try to remember where you’ve seen the most errors in CAD production. Think about how much time these questions and errors cost you and your users in terms of rework and schedule delays. After compiling a list of topics, you should have a good idea which standards need attention first (the ones that generate errors) and which revised January/February 2009 cadalyst www.cadalyst.com Read More at Cadalyst.com Read More at Cadalyst.com CAD Manager’s Newsletter archives www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerNewsletter CAD Manager’s Toolbox/Q&A www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerToolbox CAD Manager Discussion Forum http://forums.cadalyst.com/ 39 http://www.cad-manager.com http://www.Cadalyst.com http://www.Cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerNewsletter http://www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerToolbox http://forums.cadalyst.com/ http://www.cadalyst.com
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