I worked as assistant to the design engineer for diesel electric
locomotives about 40 years ago. Typically the customer (such as Santa
Fe railroad) called about once per week with answers to the engineer's
questions or details they had changed their mind about. Sometimes
production called with problems. Often one or more of the locomotives
were mostly built. I ordered 3 copies of the blue print, Xed out the
wrong part and drew in the way the locomotive should be built. I took
that to the engineer to make sure I had understood correctly. Then I
made a 2nd copy of the corrections and carried them both to one of the
locomotives where an employee was working. Often he told me he would
make the change, so I left one copy with him. and wrote notes on the
other copy if the guy making the change saw any possible problems. I
would talk to his supervisor, only if someone thought that was
necessary. If anyone said anything of possible significance to
engineering, I told the engineer when I returned to our office. Then I
marked the third copy for the drafting department and took it to the
lady who did nearly all the drafting for the locomotive department
occasionally, but rarely, she had a problem, I couldn't resolve.
Either way, I told the Engineer what we had decided and he
staightened us out if it wasn't ideal. Sante fe railroad said we
supplied the best physical wiring diagram of any locomotie
manufacturer.
Since submarines are built for the government, I'm sure technology
insertion is more complex, but otherwise similar. The idea is to
avoid errors when changes are made. A day or two later the production
supervisor received a copy of the oficially revised blue print. I
suppose he talked to the person who had already made the change and
compared the marked up blue print with the official revised blue
print. We rarely heard from him, unless looking at the prints reminded
him of a usually different possible problem.
I suppose technology insertion is much the same after the Navy takes
possession, but may be a bit different if the changes are extensive.
Neil |
