Life is a mountain. You have heard this before and know there are ups and downs, and also a sense to reach our peak potential, what we want our lives to become. So why bother making the climb?The Appalachian Mountains were my backyard as a child. And every season, rain, snow, or shine, I would play in the mountains. And being the nerdy engineer that I love to be, I like to envision a plot Read more…
“HOW IS THE REAL WORLD?” I am frequently asked this now, being out of school and seemingly off to the race toward retirement.And my response used to typically be, “Well, I’m far from the playground I used to play on. I’m far from the mountains I used to ski, hike, and climb. I’m far from being able to do the things I loved to do so freely.”Because the only thing that seemed real was Read more…
A friend of mine just recently read my book, and having worked with her at GMHT where she does part time work while going to college, she mentioned that the voice in the book is like Maynard from the band Tool. Having seen Tool in concert and it being one of my favorite shows of all time, it made me simply smile.
The recent election made many of us reflect in the mirror that morning of who we really are. And also that following night when we turned on the TV trying to see if that was ourselves on the screen. And through the stories and tales of great wealth and the psychologically strategized ads of what morally should guide us, we were left in shock, thinking that another commercial was going to end the reality TV Read more…
When I first started at GMHT, there were no daily morning meetings, there wasn’t a clear focus on why goals were important to track and strive towards, and there wasn’t a shift report to document downtime and nonconformances. It’s been over a year and a half and the things I once suggested when I first started are now in place, as today the first ever shift report was turned in. This isn’t to say that Read more…
Recently I’ve been working with a colleague at GMHT who has a black belt in jujitsu. Despite our different backgrounds of engineering and martial arts, there is similarity. The philosophy in jujitsu is control and practice of simple techniques to become better and better. Applying that to becoming better and better as a company, there is a relentless forward movement of simple techniques such as process diagrams, risk based thinking, and process based approach. Process Read more…
– positive benefits of task group incorporating ideas and questions from the suppliers in the aerospace quality management system requirements – meeting people you haven’t seen in years and the importance of remembering their names and what they enjoy pursuing in their lives – heat treating is really cool and serves quite a purpose in the demands of society today. Not everyone has to dream of being an astronaut to do cool things. – catching Read more…
People talking to hear themselves, balanced with people talking so others are willing and eager to listen. (Influenced by that “guy” who doesn’t shut up and only wants to hear himself in front of people)
The Nadcap task group is focused on providing resources and implementing standards to uphold quality control in the processing of parts for aerospace applications. Our government is a group focused on providing resources and implementing standards in the forms of laws to support the process of humans living their lives together with others. Representatives take positions in the task group and our government. However Nadcap does something that might be of interest in opening up Read more…
Sitting in on the task group comprised of primes and suppliers, an emotional issue arouse this morning about required labels on part drawings calling our required processing. The question asked is, “Knowledge passing down from the top or forced up from the bottom, which is more effective?” Context: Aerospace parts requiring government classifications.