Top Ten CAD Manager Failures – the First Five

CAD Managers have many opportunities to succeed. Getting things organized and running efficiently. It could be setting up processes and procedures. It might include moving from chaos to clarity. It may be your efforts to unifying the users. Yes there are many, many was of succeeding.

There are also many opportunities for failure. We have all seen challenges and obstacles. Some seem to exist at every firm. Some seem to be created by the users or management. Some may be created by financial restrictions. Some come to us by the technology limitations of our hardware or software.

Most of opportunities for failure come upon us from beyond our control. They require us to apply resources and solutions that are a combination of our talent, training and technology to turn them into successes. But sometimes opportunities for failure are created by those who are focused on success and they don’t even know it. I want to take a look at some of them.

I have stepped into every one of these at some point. They are the things that might happen to you if you are not careful to avoid them. Here are some of these areas –in no particular order.

1. Failing to define the target – your standards are not good enough

Yes – I always start with the standard. If you have not provided a well defined target for you CAD users to hit then you cannot expect them to hit it with much consistency. If your standard is not solid, then users will get creative about how they get things done. They will seek solutions on their own and end up finding them. The trouble with that is that they will not be unified. This leads to Chaotic CAD.

2. Failing to watch over the process

Let’s say that your CAD Standard is solid. You have covered everything that needed to be addressed. You have added to areas that were weak. You have expanded areas that were too sparse. You may feel comfortable that you have it all together.

What may happen is that the process is in place but it is not monitored. You have set the ship in motion but you are not checking the maps or the compass to see if it is staying on course. You need to have some way to verify that everyone is actually following the standards. You need a Quality Assurance process. You need a CAD QA process. In a nutshell, this would be a checklist based on your standards. Compare the files against the checklist to see how things are going. Whatever you find that is not compliant, fix it.

3. Failing to care about Quality

Similar to the area above is the fact that it is very easy to start letting quality slip. It happens little by little. If you fall into the trap above you will never have a process for checking on quality. This trap is when you have a process, but do not continue to follow it. Good habits are hard to develop. It takes a great amount of diligence to maintain top quality. Don’t let your focus wander. Put a regular checkup day on your calendar as a reminder. Write it on your “to do” list.

4. Failing to keep learning new things

This is like teaching an old dog new tricks. No – I am not calling you “old”. But you may appear to be that way if you stop learning new things. Everyone needs to continue learning. Reading is one of the best ways of doing that. Taking training classes yourself is another. There are many ways to keep learning and that do not cost anything.

There is the AUGI Training Program Check it ou. You can sign up for classes and download free tutorials.

There is AUGI e-learning provided free by www.cadlearning.com
http://www.augi.com/education/elearning.asp

Free CAD Training for AutoCAD 2008
http://www.we-r-here.com/cad/index.htm

Take a look. Some of these I have seen before and some I have not. No guarantees.

5. Failing to experiment

I have always said that play time is valuable. Ever since Kindergarten (ha ha). In the corporate world, play time is that time when you can just “fiddle around” with technology. You need to take time to check out new tools, research new techniques, and try out new methods. Some will be worthwhile and others will not.

Taking the time is one thing. Spending money is another. I have always included some “R&D” money in my budget. It is a small amount of money that I use the try things that may be promising but have no immediate need. If all we do is buy what we need, then we may be missing opportunities to expand our tools in ways that allow us to venture into new places. Keep a list of things that you wish you could do and that you wish you could buy. When you get some time or money you will already know which tool you want to investigate.

Don’t forget to let other experiment also. Don’t keep all the fun stuff to yourself.

More to come next Month…