Not a Fan
Hello everybody. It's Zack here again from Cape Town, South Africa. This is a little bit of a work post as well as a bit of a rant because I'm not having that good of a day today.
I have to do a fan replacement. This fan used to be replaced on a small cold room blower. The original design used a cabinet cooler with a bunch of slim-line fans inside, which look an awful lot like PC fans. However, because the unit is so small, they used a compact fan from EBM Papst, and these fans are made to work in temperatures ranging from 70°C (158°F) all the way down to -35°C (-31°F).
However, because these fans look like PC fans, my boss has rejected using them, even though they seem to be exactly the original fans installed in this unit from its manufacturer. So now, I'll have to do a bit of a redesign and install these massive fans on the outside. We're also changing the direction of the airflow – instead of blowing out of the coils, we're sucking past the coils and blowing out the fan side. This is incurring quite a bit of cost when it comes to parts, materials, and time. It's a bit annoying to find this out at the end of the project, especially when the project seems to be running at a very low profit margin, maybe even a loss. Now we're buying another R2,000 (approximately $110 USD) worth of fans.
My boss is an engineering technologist with probably over fifty years of experience. Once he gets an idea in his head, it doesn't really matter that the manufacturer specifications are correct. If he's made up his mind that something needs to change, he'll redesign it to fit his vision, as he's done here. However, from a project management perspective, there's no change control in place, and therefore no allowance for the cost change. I find this to be a bit of a business risk, which is frustrating. What should have happened is that he should have collected the information and presented it to the client in a meeting, along with the facts and the additional cost to improve the system.
Perhaps if this decision is part of a business strategy to get more business from the same customer, then it might be a good thing. In the end, it's his decision to make, and as the director of the company, I'll do what he's asked, regardless of whether I agree with it or not. The staff on site are complaining about the change, but I'll follow his lead.
Thanks for reading my rant – I'm not sure if it's boring or not. Have any of you been in similar situations where management makes decisions like this? I hope you all have a good day. Cheers.
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