How to chart progress of CAD Dept.?

[GreyHippo]

I was recently promoted to CAD Supervisor and I was wondering how to I improved the department.

What I am thinking:
Get the total cost of the project (engineering, design, & CAD) billed to a client and compare that to the total cost of just the CAD work. Then I can compute a percentage of CAD work to total cost. I know I would need to pull many jobs together to get an average. So, I would compare the average cost of CAD work before I was CAD Sup. and then after I became CAD Sup.

I hope that after I implement CAD Standards and change a few procedures that my department would be more effiecient. Even if its a 1% difference. 1% of 1 Million equal $10,000.

What are your thoughts?

[jakob_k]

I was recently promoted to CAD Supervisor and I was wondering how to I improved the department.

What I am thinking:
Get the total cost of the project (engineering, design, & CAD) billed to a client and compare that to the total cost of just the CAD work. Then I can compute a percentage of CAD work to total cost. I know I would need to pull many jobs together to get an average. So, I would compare the average cost of CAD work before I was CAD Sup. and then after I became CAD Sup.

I hope that after I implement CAD Standards and change a few procedures that my department would be more effiecient. Even if its a 1% difference. 1% of 1 Million equal $10,000.

What are your thoughts?

hi boesiii,
you will need a lot of projects and/or years to piece together a reliable framework. for now your gut feeling/instinct will suffice. my general experience is if overtime disappears and people are happy at 5:00, then you've made improvements. fighting the computer (then each other) causes slumps in productivity. the project still goes out, but not as "clean" or satisfying as it could be. 90% of people/managers will meet the deadline and fight rfi's and supplemental dwg's later rather than the buzz phrase, "do it right the first time".

you can build cad timer routines but then you promote a "gestapo" mentality and most routines don't recognize when someone left the computer (dwg) and went to a meeting. also some designers do cad work (and drafters design work) so there is no hard and fast way to measure performance. the best way to improve performance (as i learned as a sergeant the the army) is to engage (ie. pay attention to) your people. solicit their input and be open to their conversation. if you talk to them (regularly) they realize the attention and perk up. they'll start to swamp you with ideas because they know their corner of the company better than you. you only need to coordinate it into a bigger picture.

the greatest benefit to a company drafting effort i can suggest (outside of people) is a clean library and reasonable documented standards. the work generally involves a million details/options and only a person (not a computer) can properly put it together. to document everything makes for a 500 page book that no one will read or follow.

imho,
karl

[robert.1.hall72202]

Your ideas require a baseline to grade against.

An entire years worth of data is needed so that you have
something to grade your progress against.

Are we getting better or worse?

I have a years worth of data and I can clearly see where my
cad department is heading. Thankfully, we are going to outperform
last year.

[Doodlemusmaximus]

The best advice I can give is to take it in small steps. If you go all out for change then you'll cause a few frictions along the way. Something you'll have to keep an eye on though is the amount of real changes to designs. Use there mentality when it happens. Most firms will put in for extra cash when a design change is forced upon them so you should realize this and incorporate this in your system. Remember to defend your department to the hilt as well as they'll more than likely be the brunt of an excuse for late delivery.


Its not always an easy job being manager/supervisor as you have to keep both sides happy them and us as it were, but good luck to you in this.

Remember that there is always help just a mouse click away.