Ryan is an engineer in the Sacramento Area with a focus in Python, Ruby, and Rust. Bash/Python Exercism mentor. Coding, physics, calculus, music, woodworking. Looking for work!
I'm going to use this opportunity to vent a little bit, because it'll be good for my mental health.
I'm going to start by saying that my job is pretty great. I love 3D CAD design, solving problems, doing math, coming up with solutions that are manufacturable, and especially teaching the newer engineers how to do the same things. There are only a few small areas of my job that are unpleasant.
The absolute worst part about my job is Quality Control. We are a small machining/molding company, and because we have a lot of medical customers, they require us to be ISO 9001 certified. It's a quality certification that basically says that your company can handle keeping track of metrics, continuous improvement, and track down root causes of issues when they come up. None of us had any experience with it, but as the only engineer, I was tasked with putting together the system, writing up the manual and procedures, and then handling all of the quality issues going forward.
The two main things this "handling" involves are getting audited several times a year by accreditation bodies and some of our customers and handling any quality issues that come up.
These two things spike my anxiety the second they come into my inbox.
Audits generally consist of someone who has been trained, gotten certifications, and made it their general career grilling me, untrained with only knowledge that I've gotten from being audited before (and some gracious mentorship from a couple of the nicer auditors). They pick through my system trying to find any flaws, and if (when) they find something, each thing is a ding on our record and a report that I have to write up.
Quality issues happen any time our parts aren't quite right. We send parts out (that I have no part in the actual manufacturing of), and if any of the dimensions on any of the parts is off by even .005 inches (~.12 mm), they generate what is known as a Nonconformance (with a very capital "N"). The parts get shipped back to us to fix it, and often I have to do a Root Cause Investigation to figure out why the parts weren't right. This involves finding out which person did what on which machine, what exactly wasn't right, why did that happen, and how can we definitely keep that from ever happening again. Again, someone who has spent their career looking for mistakes in reports like these will be looking at this and picking it apart for me once I have finished.
If I get an ulcer, I'm naming him Nonconformance.
Anyways, I'm trying to train a replacement so I can get out from under this accidental responsibility, but I've been audited 4 times in the last month, and had several Nonconformances all come through (most of which while I was on paternity leave), so I needed to let some of that out.
I love my job. I love to teach. I love to solve problems. Quality Control is important, but I do not have the mental makeup to enjoy it. Nonconformances can jump in a lake. Thanks for the opportunity to vent. :)
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I'm going to use this opportunity to vent a little bit, because it'll be good for my mental health.
I'm going to start by saying that my job is pretty great. I love 3D CAD design, solving problems, doing math, coming up with solutions that are manufacturable, and especially teaching the newer engineers how to do the same things. There are only a few small areas of my job that are unpleasant.
The absolute worst part about my job is Quality Control. We are a small machining/molding company, and because we have a lot of medical customers, they require us to be ISO 9001 certified. It's a quality certification that basically says that your company can handle keeping track of metrics, continuous improvement, and track down root causes of issues when they come up. None of us had any experience with it, but as the only engineer, I was tasked with putting together the system, writing up the manual and procedures, and then handling all of the quality issues going forward.
The two main things this "handling" involves are getting audited several times a year by accreditation bodies and some of our customers and handling any quality issues that come up.
Audits generally consist of someone who has been trained, gotten certifications, and made it their general career grilling me, untrained with only knowledge that I've gotten from being audited before (and some gracious mentorship from a couple of the nicer auditors). They pick through my system trying to find any flaws, and if (when) they find something, each thing is a ding on our record and a report that I have to write up.
Quality issues happen any time our parts aren't quite right. We send parts out (that I have no part in the actual manufacturing of), and if any of the dimensions on any of the parts is off by even .005 inches (~.12 mm), they generate what is known as a Nonconformance (with a very capital "N"). The parts get shipped back to us to fix it, and often I have to do a Root Cause Investigation to figure out why the parts weren't right. This involves finding out which person did what on which machine, what exactly wasn't right, why did that happen, and how can we definitely keep that from ever happening again. Again, someone who has spent their career looking for mistakes in reports like these will be looking at this and picking it apart for me once I have finished.
If I get an ulcer, I'm naming him Nonconformance.
Anyways, I'm trying to train a replacement so I can get out from under this accidental responsibility, but I've been audited 4 times in the last month, and had several Nonconformances all come through (most of which while I was on paternity leave), so I needed to let some of that out.
I love my job. I love to teach. I love to solve problems. Quality Control is important, but I do not have the mental makeup to enjoy it. Nonconformances can jump in a lake. Thanks for the opportunity to vent. :)