CB> It's not usually the engineer's oversight or fault - the real
 CB> culprits in "bad design" cases are the accountants and other
 CB> financial people, looking to cut the costs. Save $1 in parts on
 CB> a radio that sells a million, and that bumps the company's
 CB> profit from that radio up by $1,000,000...

 RG> Frankly, I feel this is wank... sure, the accountants, etc
 RG> could ask (even demand) that an engineer trim $1.00 off the
 RG> production costs, but I don't believe for a minute that any of
 RG> them could have the force to make the engineer do so, well, not
 RG> unless the engineer in question is so incompetent that he'd
 RG> fear losing his/her job over it.

  You image is closer to the truth than Chris's.

  Accountants have *no* say in the design of products. Products are
discussed at a weekly meeting between General Manager, Production,
Marketing, and Engineering. Accountancy is not represented, but three
sets of costing could be presented: factory costs, engineering
estimates, and Sales figures.

  The most common discussion of costs would be for a Chief Engineer
to stand up and say "I can cut $5 out of the existing TV for the same
performance." Sales and Production would be immediately suspicious.
For some reason, people think it is the other way around... weak
engineers being leant on to ruin a set for the sake of 50 cents! ROFL!
I've lost count of the times I've bene told by Sales not to ruin the
set for the sake of fucking 50 cents! Us engineers go for the max.

  Occasionally, Production might ask Engineering to loosen a spec or
reduce a test... but believe it or not, Production Managers prefer to
make a good reliable set. Their dream is to make the same set forever
and ever, until the perfect set finally makes itself. Engineering
looks on Production as "the hewers of wood and carters of water."

  Another possible discussion of price might be Marketing complaining
that they can't sell a particular set at that price. The Engineering
attitude is: "We'll design you a new set that's better and cheaper!"

  Engineering is always looking for new projects. If the current set
is going really well, no one wants to change. Production and Marketing
are the conservative ones! For some reason everyone thinks it's the
other way around, but the most common reason for a perfectly good set
ruined for the lack of 50 cents is a fuckwit engineer who got it
totally wrong and he was the one who recommended the change! Wicked
accountants with an abacus simply do not exist. No one takes any
notice of a fucking bean counter. Accountants only keep score. In my
40 years of design I have never been influenced by an accountant. A
good engineer knows more about costing than a bloody accountant
anyway. 

  Any fool can make something that works. An engineer makes it work,
cheap! The real cost pressure comes from engineering. If not, they
should be sacked.

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

---