mechanic wrote:
On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 18:27:34 -0000 (UTC), Tweed wrote:

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:14:11 on Fri, 16 Apr
2021, Tweed remarked:

That looks like a pretty basic flaw that should have been found and fixed
long ago, particularly as it's happened before, in Ireland!

Or similar failure modes on the Comet aircraft. Don't they teach this on
the first week of engineering courses, any more?

It´s what happens as the result of “efficiency”. In days gone by there
would be a core of long serving engineers in an organisation with the
corporate memory of what not to do again. These days it´s fashionable to
talk up changing jobs every few years and easing out the older experienced
staff because they are expensive. The modern practice is to claim that
everything can be captured in a specification or a standard. Unfortunately
that´s not the case....

Many outfits are doomed to keep on repeating the same mistakes because of
high staff turnover.

I agree that corporate memory is important, but proper engineers
are taught universal memory - which can then be applied to
whatever corporate they are working for this week.

It would make for an extremely long degree course to impart the knowledge
learnt from a career.

So what did you do at the end of your long - and no doubt-
successful career to capture this institutional memory for future
generations? Maybe create a few YouTube videos or setup a wiki?


We try, with varying degrees of success, to keep a mix of young middle aged
and end of career staff. Hopefully the knowledge trickles down by working
together. The young have someone to go to to ask, seek advice etc. The more
mature staff provide invaluable input on review panels. That, especially,
helps to avoid repeating past mistakes.