Comments on: BAD CAD Management Habits – All or Nothing

By: Jeff Koellman

Jeff Koellman — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:49:43 +0000

I have found when a standard is first put into place, there will likely be an exception or a condition that was not considered. Enforcing standards is important, but there are always situations that warrant deviation or adjustments.
A CAD manager should never be reluctant to answer the why of a standard. Getting your CAD operators to understand why is how you get them to discipline themselves better, meaning less policing for you.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:57:37 +0000

Andy,
I sort of agree with you. But I kind of understood the BLOG post to say just that. Yes, there is a time for putting the foot down. But more often than not you have to be flexible. What I find is that if your “rules” have merit (and by merit I mean a real, solid reason, not just “because I said”) then the CAD Technicians will follow them. If your “rules” don’t hold water, they won’t. I went through this with one of my techs. After showing him the “why” and the “how” of the “rule” in question I get great satisfaction when I walk by his desk now and see it being implemented because in the end it saves him time and effort. You can’t just throw in a bunch of “rules” with no reason. But if there is merit, yes you can put your foot down.

Tim McDougald
CAD Manager
KMB Design Groups, Inc. p.s.
Olympia, Washington

By: CADDManager

CADDManager — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:59:55 +0000

I could not agree more. Sometimes the best fix is to draw a hard line in the sand. CAD Management is never a mechanical process. You have to judge each interaction on its own.

By: Andy Male - NZ

Andy Male - NZ — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:08:54 +0000

I agree in part, but there are times when you have to say, enough is enough, shape up or ship out!! You try to give someone a little; however, nine times out of ten they will do it again on the next project but this time without your knowledge! Standards are there for a reason, we have Company standards and specific client standards, we work though any CAD standard issues that may arrive, but the problem is, on a big project, with different offices around the country working on it, once you let one person slip into the routine of changing a standard others will follow