Free Dummies Book Offer

A while back I wrote a post on the “Dummies” books for CAD. The Dummies books go beyond CAD and so I was contacted with an offer that I pass on to you.

Here it is…

Siemens PLM has also published several Dummies booklets. “Design Logic for Dummies”, “Check-Mate for Dummies” and the latest “Design Freedom for Dummies” (based on Synchronous Technology and written by David Byrnes).

Jerry Sarfati have 20 copies available of the “Design Freedom for Dummies” books in his office, and he’s offering them for free to anyone with a US mailing address. Contact him via his twitter page( www.twitter.com/jsarfati ) with your US mailing address and he’ll send it out to the first 20 who ask for it. One copy per person please, USA mailing addresses only, available while supplies last.

So there you have it… a free book for the asking.  Click here to message him.  Tell him I sent you 🙂

Thanks Jerry!

Here is the process that I will be expanding upon as we continue the conversation on CAD Standards development. This will give you a high level look at where I will be going.

Planning your work is essential to success. Without a plan things do not happen. Most of us plan things out, even if it is a quick plan that only exists in your head. I encourage you to write it down, refine it, review it and keep adding to it. A written plan is best because you can see it all and see the interconnectedness of each task.

Here is the complete basic plan for developing a standard, from start to finish. I have started discussing #1 already. I will continue down this entire plan so that you will know what each step is in detail. You may think of additional steps and you should add them. These are the basics as I see them now.

1. Implement CAD Governance
2. Define Scope
3. Evaluate Existing Standards
4. Solicit Input from Users / Other Companies
5. Develop the Standard
6. Write Draft Document for Standards
7. Circulate the Draft for Comment
8. Revise Draft Based on Comments
9. Publish the Standard
10. Train the User
11. Implement the Standards
12. Enforce and Reinforce the Standard
13. Evaluate Your Standards

Moving from Single to Group

One of the first steps is to interact with those that you have identified as caring and getting them into some form of group. Groups often make greater impact than individuals. Working alone limits the impact of your efforts. Working with groups expands the impact you will have. Groups are essential to overseeing CAD.

Gathering individuals into groups will work better if you pay attention to the group makeup and dynamics. I will address these in another post at some point. For now, lets just get the ones that you have identified as caring into a group. Start with a meeting to overview their involvement. Let them know what is expected and allowed. Discuss roles and responsibilities and limits of authority. Get the ground rules in place.

Moving toward the Cure

Moving people from individual to group is an adventure. Moving them from “caring” to “curing” is a challenge. Taking the raw materials of the people outlined above and turning them into a cohesive team that works on CAD issues beyond their own drawings, projects and offices takes some time. First you have to find them, gather them together, get them pointed in the right direction and encourage them to continue toward the goal.

Moving from caring about their project to caring about the entire firm requires that you constantly remind them that others have the similar needs and concerns like they have. Remind them those others people have valid ideas and also have limitations that they may not know about. Urge them to take a grander view of the overall needs of the firm, not just their needs of their project. Their immediate need will be to get their projects out the door and secure the processes that they have. They will want to do things in ways they have proven successful to themselves and their immediate coworkers. They will have advocates in their projects and offices pressing them to get their ways embedded in the standard. They all come with agendas. Some hold tighter to them than others.

So broaden their view to the entire company and then move them to caring about the entire company as well. Understanding someone else’s perspective does not make you embrace it or seek to satisfy it. Moving people toward seeking a balanced answer that works for all can be hard work. Never let them forget that the right answer works for all, not just for some.

Getting them to the “Curing” level is what it takes to move them toward solving other people’s problems and not just their own. Expanding their view helps, but getting them to actually work for the good of all is best. As the team builds and gains cohesion, this will start to happen. Reward those that find the best. Mention them to others and good team players. Give them the accolades they deserve.

The ultimate responsibility for Curing your CAD woes stays firmly on your shoulders, but the groups you use will help you make progress.

There are several teams you need to develop to enhance CAD Governance.

They include:

• Corporate Management Team
• Office CAD Liaisons/Representatives/Super Users
• CAD Standard Review Committee
• The Inner Circle

Let’s take a short look at each one.

Corporate Management Team

These are the members of your firm who are impacted by CAD but are not part of defining or implementing anything related to CAD. You need to keep them on your team. You may not have a formal meeting with them all together. You could, but getting all of these people in one room at one time is tough.  This team may not even realize it is a team.

This team is going to be comprised of single individuals that you interact with individually. In there office, on the phone, over lunch or whenever you get a chance. Your goal is to keep them appraised of your progress and keep them or get them on your side. Or at least not working against you.

Office CAD Liaisons/Representatives/Super Users

This is the group that you tap into for ideas, planning and change management. This is a formal team. You invite them to participate, they do not volunteer for the job. They do not work for you so you need to get approval from the first group and their boss. Once you have this team together, you can start gathering ideas for upgrading or correcting process problems with CAD. These will be the ones that provide you with the most information about making things better. Select them well and use them constructively. They are not your worker pool, they are professionals who know the CAD products well.

CAD Standard Review Committee

This team will help you plan and process the information that will go into the CAD Standard. This is the most formal team you may have.  They will help define it, review it, refine it, publish it and enforce it. This team is critical to the success of establishing a CAD Standard and getting people to use it.

The Inner Circle

A few select ones that resonate with you the most. This is an informal team.  These will be hand selected and they will be the ones that help you make the tough decisions. They will have a pulse on the firm and the tools. They will cover your back and encourage your heart. They will be there for you and not abandon you when things get tough.

I will develop these team definitions in greater depth in future posts.

Many things can get in the way of creating or modifying a CAD Standard. Here are a few…

Lack of senior management support

This is the number one killer when trying to develop CAD Standards. What does this look like or sound like? It will be those who actively seek to derail or squelch any progress toward a standard. They may not know that they are doing it. It may just be offhand comments from senior people, like “we tried that before” or “it will not work” or “people will never follow it”. These kinds of comments suck the life out of those who are striving to get everyone on the same page.

It may be more active in comments like “these do not apply to me or my project” or “it will slow us down too much to use standards” or “standards have a negative impact on creativity”. These comments are sometimes pointed directly toward a desire for the lack of constraint.

Other type of lack of support may appear in just the absence of encouragement. Statements like “that is your thing” or “I don’t need to be involved” can make your job harder.

When you encounter these issues, try to respond positively in private. Let the person know that the need for a standard is valid. That the lack of one is impacting productivity and time spent doing CAD tasks. These issues equate to a loss of money through wasted time.

Lack of agreement about what CAD standards should cover

Some attempts are stifled by disagreements on the basics and the level of standardization needed. The process you need to go through will discuss this issue and seek to gain consensus on the need to dig and how deep to go. I will cover this process as I continue this series.

Company or Departmental resistance

Your firm may have a culture of freedom when it comes to CAD. They have gotten where they are without a standard and there is no need for one now. Explain that the company cannot expand, share project work, snap people on and off jobs without some level of agreement on what should be done.

Sometimes it is just one department that seeks to not be fettered by a standard. Talk to them about unification across departmental boundaries and how it will help them to get unified input from others and that they need to unify the output to other departments.

Lack of desire to standardize or unify

There may be a general lack of desire for standards. They may be discussed, but no one really cares about making them happen. Or it may be that each little group has a way of doing things that they want to hold on too. When this happens – stress that unifying the process will encourage expanded production. You may end up with a few versions to your standard, but they will be variation on a theme so that when one person moves from one standard to another, 85% of it is the same.

Those who think it is too big a task

A few may think that it cannot be done. It is too big a task. Just remind them that it will be taken on slowly and step by step. Standards do not need to spring fully grown, they can be grown into as the need arises. Starting slow and breaking the large job down into smaller tasks can alleviate this concern.

All in all there will be resistance to standardizing if your firm has not done it before. This is not a reason to run, it is a call to progress in a manner that addresses the concerns as you make progress.

Doesn’t anyone care about CAD anymore?

Rally the ones that Care

Making a change or moving people toward process improvement, CAD Standards or even a software upgrade takes a lot to cultural effort within your firm.  Finding a group that can help in this process can help you get more done. Getting them on your side is needed and finding them is the first step.

Those who care about CAD will have some recognizable qualities and habits.

These people will be talking to each other already. Most of the time you are just trying to observe who is doing this as a matter of course. Look around and see who is doing most of the talking about CAD. Not the ones that are complaining, but the ones that are working toward making things better. They have creative ways of thinking. They look to pass on tips and tricks.

What to look for in the person

You are looking for someone who cares about good CAD. They take pride in their work and in the work that the company produces. They are concerned about the process. They have a measure of self respect and respect for others. They will work well in a team environment. They realize that decisions of the team may go against their personal preference and yet they will support the team’s decision. They will not have hidden agendas. Be assured that they will have agendas, but look for those that are willing to be transparent about them.

They will know a lot about the tools they use and the processes that go into creating good files. They will be constant learners who seek out the answers from others or dig up the answer themselves. They will take advice from others and not pass judgment on an idea until they have given it a chance.

They have opinions, but share them with respect. They will speak up even if they are the lone voice. They will seek to have others understand their opinion and seek to understand the opinion of others. They will grant the benefit of the doubt when an idea challenges their thinking. They will not snap at others or undermine the team dynamic. They will trust the others in the group. They will provide input and documentation when called upon. They will deliver on their promises.

Sound like a super hero? Maybe they are one in the making. You are looking for the best of the best. Not just the bests CAD user, but one who works for the good of the firm. How do you find people like this? You watch for them. You pay attention and you work with them slowly in small steps. Every step you check to see how they are progressing. I would guess that the time frame is about 3 months. It takes that long to see how they might work out.

Making them a Part of the Process

Once you have identified them, ask them to become part of your process. Tell them that you would like to get their input on some issues. Start small and see how they react. Do not formally ask them to join anything yet. Just work casually with them for a while to see if they fit the mold that you are looking for.

The next step is getting them to move from Caring about CAD to becoming a Cure for CAD troubles.

Before we move on to developing a CAD Standard lets think about who needs to be involved in the process.

CAD needs governance. Governing a CAD environment cannot be overlooked. Approaching the oversight of CAD from a willy-nilly perspective of doing what just comes your way will not allow you to make greater strides toward higher levels of CAD productivity.

Governing CAD need not be a daunting task. It can be as simple as asking a few people what they think needs to be done, having them review your plans, bouncing ideas off of them or more. But it does need to be formal. If it is not then you run the risk of falling out of a good habit of planning and into a bad habit of responding only to others input and demands.

So where do you start?

I suggest starting first with yourself and your staff (if you have any). Get your act together before you open it to others. Unless you are a one person show, you will need to involve others in working out your CAD processes, even small shops with just a few players needs to have some form of guideline or standard.

Standards will happen even if you do not plan them out or document them. People will develop agreed upon methods and processes so that they can work better together. This happens naturally. Your job is to capitalize on the nature bent of people to plan their work. Your job is to refine and expand on what they have. Your job is to make it widely used.

There are several teams you need to develop to enhance CAD Governance.

They include:

Corporate Management Team

Office CAD Liaisons/Reps/Super Users

CAD Standard Review Committee

The Inner Circle

Read more about these teams in the Part 2 post…

Press Release from Autodesk…

“Autodesk 2010 Design and Engineering Software Product Line Now Available”

Portfolio Offers Enhanced Functionality for Sustainable Design and Infrastructure Modeling, Allowing Customers to Capitalize on Stimulus Opportunities

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Autodesk today began shipping its new 2010 line of 2D and 3D design and engineering software. More than 50 new products offer new features and functionality as well as improved tools for Digital Prototyping, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Infrastructure Modeling, sustainable design and analysis, which will help architects, engineers and designers meet increasing commercial and public sector demand for more energy-efficient buildings, products and infrastructure.

Availability
English language versions of Autodesk’s 2010 products will begin shipping over the next several weeks in North America, with availability in other languages and regions in the coming months. Full details are available at www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions.

Autodesk previewed the new software releases last month in three virtual press conference webcasts, which are available for viewing at www.autodesk.com/2010webcasts.

Check out the videos.

Read the entire press release – Autodesk 2010 Design and Engineering Software Product Line Now Available

Some may wonder when is the best time to create a CAD Standard. Do they wait until too many problems arise to live without one? Do they wait until the owner can no longer stand the confusion and complaints of the production staff?

Here are some thoughts on this issue…

Start Now

You should create a CAD Standard as soon as possible. Don’t wait for complaints or for others to realize that one is needed. The CAD Manager is the one that should be thinking out in front of others. If you are the CAD Manager then start thinking of standards.

Start small

Don’t wait to have a completed package of standards. Start right away by getting some documentation created on a small scale. Starting small allows you to gauge the embrace of your firm with this process. Chances are that there is already some form of a standard floating around your firm. It may be slips of paper or memos or emails that outline what to do when. Start collecting those up and formatting them so they all look similar.

Write down one topic at a time

You could start writing down what people are doing. Or what you are doing. Getting something in writing is the first step. When something begins to take shape and appears in writing, them people start taking notice. Some may have concerns about the process or the need or what is in the standard. This will start a conversation that will lead to developing a Standard.

Look at the topics collectively

Once you have some things on paper start looking for what is missing. Refer to my list of what needs to be included. Make sure you cover the big ten that I mention first. After those areas are done, move to others.