chewearn's blog

Quote from Wikipedia:
A business trip or official trip is a travel/journey caused by business necessities.

Working as an engineer for many years, I have the privilege (or misfortune) to be sent on a number of business trips. Compared to a marketing, sales or management personnel, the number of times I have to travel for the company was probably quite low. Nevertheless, it is my firm belief that engineers frequently draw the short straw when it came to these things. Anytime there is an “easy and fun” trip, they sent the other guys. However, anytime they need someone in the most remote place on Earth to fix the most difficult of problems, they send an engineer.

In this first part of what I hope will eventually be a series on engineer’s guide to business trips, I will write about business trips resulted by the dreaded production stop.

Side note:
Not all engineers would face the type of business trips that I will write about. I can only write from personal experiences and from experiences of other engineers I know. You would also noticed that some might not even qualify as business trips (as defined by Wikipedia). My personal definition of a business trip is: “a trip made for the company that requires overnight stay.”

The dreaded production stop

The production line has encountered an unsolvable problem. Every minute of production line stoppage is costing the business huge losses, and the management is screaming blood. On the scale of 1 to 10, this qualify as the shit has hit the fan.

When production line stops and the company is bleeding money, everyone runs for cover. Don’t stick your head up and take the fall. However, if you are directly involved (e.g. member of the project team), it might not be advisable to pass the buck. A trip to the factory is probably unavoidable. In such a scenario, portray yourself as the point man, like Ethan Hunt of Mission: Impossible. You are not the scapegoat, you are the person that will save the day.

Side note:
One trick I learnt the hard way is to send the junior guy. I said “the hard way”, because I was the junior guy. If you are the senior guy, doing that is just plain mean.

Turning the trip to your advantage

When you are forced into making such trips, the following are some things to remember. It will save you a lot of aggravations and might even help your career:

1. Analyze the problem logically.
   If you are freshly out of college, you might not have the right knowledge and skills. Troubleshooting a production line problem is not the same as troubleshooting a problem in the design lab. Worst, they don’t usually teach this skill in schools. Learn statistical engineering, and learn it fast.
2. Take charge.
   Don’t sit in long meetings with the factory personnels, where the only thing discussed are their long complaints about the ineptness of the design teams. Steer the discussion towards the problem symptoms and the analysis done thus far. Give firm and specific instructions on what to do next.
3. Use PDCA (Plan Do Check Act).
   Create a PDCA list, containing specific actions: what need doing, when, how and what measurements to make. Assign an action holder to each action item. Don’t take the responsibility for every actions, let the factory engineers and technicians work for you.
4. Do things in parallel.
   Make use of every available people to track the problem simultaneously via several separate investigations. This is not the same as randomly come up with ideas and throw them forward. Each investigation has to be deliberately thought out, to help narrow down the possible causes.
5. Plan your meetings.
   Set up a meeting every morning to organize the investigations. Set up another meeting at the end of the day to review what has been done and what to prepare for the next day.
6. Plan your day.
   Create your own and separate PDCA list to go through. Check on the progress of investigations frequently, to put some pressure and urgency to the investigative work being carried out.
7. Avoid the factory manager.
   Frequently when I visited a factory, the one problem I was sent to solve mutated into ten different problems. These problems would usually be assigned to a factory engineer or technician to look at if you are not around. However, once you are there, you became the “go to” guy for everything from clogged kitchen sink to the boss’s spouse problems. Exaggeration aside, keep busy and avoid the factory manager. You are an additional headcount outside the factory manager’s budget, and he likes nothing better than assign more jobs to you.

8. Enlist the production expert.
   You would likely be a stranger in a strangeland. Most blue collar factory workers I encountered in a foreign country are non-English speakers. If you find a production expert in the factory, enlist him into your team. Not only will he be helpful in your decision making, he is usually be the guy who can speedily arrange necessary facilities, equipment and personnels.
9. Enlist people back home.
   You are away from your lab, without the proper equipment to analyze the problem. Don’t completely rely on the factory floor equipment. I have personally encountered uncalibrated equipment that led my investigation to the wrong place. Send samples by priority shipment to your colleagues back home as soon as possible, and give specific instructions on what to do with them. Sometimes, the problem could have been solved by the time the samples arrived back home. Usually though, the samples you sent could provide valuable/additional insights.
10. Set a deadline for your return.
    Plan a return date before you leave home and inform everyone about it every chance you got. If you don’t want to appear unprofessional, get non-refundable plane tickets. An open-ended return flight costs more, and in addition, non-refundable tickets could incur a substantial fee if rescheduled.

    Of course, it would look extremely bad if you leave before the problem is solved. There is this tired old joke that I heard too many times: you don’t leave until the problem is solved. However, by having a definite departure date, it made it clear to everyone that you expect the problem be solved by that date, so they better haul ass.

11. Don’t hang around once production is running again.
    The factory manager would like nothing better than keep you around, even after the problem has been solved. Your trip is not paid from his budget, and he got an additional skilled engineer around to troubleshoot other stuffs. As soon as the production line restart, make immediate arrangement to leave in the earliest flight.

In conclusion

In your engineering career, you could be sent on many business trips. In my opinion, you should avoid being sent to solve production problem. However, if you can’t avoid it, then make full use of the opportunity to promote your career. A successful trip will look good in your list of achievements, when it’s time to review your performance or prepare a job resume.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think.