CAD Manager's Newsletter (#208)
9 Dec, 2008Dealing with Bad Economic News
No doubt, times are tough, but there are things you can do to soften the effects of company cutbacks.
This past week I attended Autodesk University, where I taught some classes, gathered information on new products, and spoke to a lot of CAD managers. Ordinarily I would write an event report to catch you up on the details, but this year I found the economic news so serious that I'm dedicating this issue to passing along some tips for surviving the downturn. Here goes.
A Little History
Over the years, I've conducted informal surveys of CAD managers to gauge the economic stability of the companies we all work in. I usually do the survey by a show of hands and ask the following questions:
- How many of you work in companies that have too much work to get done?
- How many of you work in companies with good/normal workloads?
- How many of you work in companies that are laying off?
Throughout 2006, while speaking at 35 CAD manager and user events, I asked the "laying off" question and counted exactly seven hands. Roughly 50% of the group indicated companies that had "too much" work, with the balance in the "good/normal" category. Clearly 2006 was a good economic year, particularly for those in civil engineering and architectural industries. Read more »
:: CAD Manager's Toolbox: Standards Enforcement via Auditing
You could see dramatic results if you get your whole production team involved in upholding standards.
I received a great suggestion for standards enforcement from reader Todd Schuler in Ohio last week, and I want to share it with you. Todd has found that by examining some production drawings in a team-training environment, all his users have become more aware of the errors they make. They also have a heightened awareness of following standards because the likelihood of having their errors spotted goes up. Read more »
Got a question for the CAD Manager's Newsletter? Send it to me at rgreen@cad-manager.com. If I use your question in the newsletter, you'll receive a cool Cadalyst prize!
Cadalyst Job Search
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California Electric Utilities Summit
December 11, 2008
Glendale, California
This event, hosted by U.S. CAD, will focus on how electric utilities can improve efficiency, response times, and decision-making by using Autodesk software to design and manage infrastructure assets. Read more »
Webinar: Introduction to ArcGIS Data Interoperability
December 11, 2008
9 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m. PST
During the seminar from ESRI, attendees will learn about the features of ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension that support data workflows. Read more »
Cloud Computing Conference: An IT Paradigm Shift
February 11, 2009
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Plum Communications' conference will explore the assessment of PaaS (Platform as a Service) and infrastructure models, the challenge of scale, migration risks and rewards, and security. Read more »
For a complete list of CAD meetings, conferences, training sessions, and more, check out our calendar of events on Cadalyst.com.