As an engineer involved in complex design and development projects, I know how crucial it is to adhere to the numerous milestones and timelines set, thus doing everything in the right order. It might be tempting to take shortcuts but in reality, the long way round, is generally the preferred option.
Some of you may recall Ewan McGregor and his best pal Charley Boorman, set themselves a goal of riding their motorbikes around the world. Their epic motorcycle journey from London to New York was made famous by a TV production which followed their travels, documenting the sometimes perilous adventure and a book first published in 2004 by Time Warner. Both sharing the title “Long Way Round”, their journey of “Chasing Shadows across the World”, reminds me of an engineer’s everyday experience, of racing against the clock to meet looming deadlines. Whatever stage in the production cycle we engineers may be at, the journey forward is all that really matters with the completion of the component or product meeting high satisfaction levels at journeys end.
I do appreciate that in general engineers are not going crazy riding motorcycles around the world right now, but many are currently involved in projects specialising in CAD, building prototypes, product testing or manufacturing. All, I expect, are taking the long way round by doing things properly and adhering to the detail. This, is what really matters in the end.
