A note from Dave:
As I work in industry, I continue to see enormous amounts of time and energy wasted because Design Responsible Engineers do not understand GD&T. I intervene in correspondence between these engineers and suppliers who also often do not understand GD&T. I see iteration after iteration of mis-communication that could have been avoided by having engineers trained properly in GD&T from the beginning.
Even when the company provides Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing training, the engineers often believe they are too busy to take the training. In reality, three days of uninterrupted GD&T training could avoid weeks or even months of mis-communication, wasted trips for meetings, and delayed parts. Multiply this by the number of parts that an engineer is responsible for developing. Then consider what happens when incorrectly dimensioned parts go into production.
Taking time to properly train engineers in GD&T is a bargain with incredible returns in efficiency, timing, and quality.
Suggestions for maximizing the benefit from training
Plan Ahead - Let everyone know about the training well in advance so they can plan to avoid conflicts with meetings or vacation days. Students get no benefit from the days they miss class
Leave the Laptops at Home - There can be value to bringing a laptop to the Stacks Class because the students may choose to use the Stacks Wizard for completing the exercises. But focusing on emails instead of paying attention in class just wastes your training dollars.
Respect Class Time - When students are getting pulled out of class to attend meetings or attend to other issues, they are not getting any benefit from the class
Consider Offsite - Many companies choose to rent a meeting room in a hotel in order to get everyone away from the distractions of the workplace. This has proven to be extraordinarily effective
Management Participation - Class participation is normally quite good, but it tends to be even better when a supervisor or manager attends the class. And unlike most other training, GD&T is just as vital for managers to understand as it is for the designers and design responsible engineers.
As I work in industry, I continue to see enormous amounts of time and energy wasted because Design Responsible Engineers do not understand GD&T. I intervene in correspondence between these engineers and suppliers who also often do not understand GD&T. I see iteration after iteration of mis-communication that could have been avoided by having engineers trained properly in GD&T from the beginning.
Even when the company provides Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing training, the engineers often believe they are too busy to take the training. In reality, three days of uninterrupted GD&T training could avoid weeks or even months of mis-communication, wasted trips for meetings, and delayed parts. Multiply this by the number of parts that an engineer is responsible for developing. Then consider what happens when incorrectly dimensioned parts go into production.
Taking time to properly train engineers in GD&T is a bargain with incredible returns in efficiency, timing, and quality.
Suggestions for maximizing the benefit from training
Plan Ahead - Let everyone know about the training well in advance so they can plan to avoid conflicts with meetings or vacation days. Students get no benefit from the days they miss class
Leave the Laptops at Home - There can be value to bringing a laptop to the Stacks Class because the students may choose to use the Stacks Wizard for completing the exercises. But focusing on emails instead of paying attention in class just wastes your training dollars.
Respect Class Time - When students are getting pulled out of class to attend meetings or attend to other issues, they are not getting any benefit from the class
Consider Offsite - Many companies choose to rent a meeting room in a hotel in order to get everyone away from the distractions of the workplace. This has proven to be extraordinarily effective
Management Participation - Class participation is normally quite good, but it tends to be even better when a supervisor or manager attends the class. And unlike most other training, GD&T is just as vital for managers to understand as it is for the designers and design responsible engineers.