art wrote:

On 23 Jan, 18:14, gwatts wrote:

art wrote:


On 23 Jan, 14:49, "Jimmie D" wrote:

"art" wrote in oglegroups.com...

...Part of

snip where we used 5532 op amps in many audio circuits and in one place

as a flip flop so we wouldn't have to stock a 74xx or 40xx just for that
one use. It was easier on the assemblers to have one bin of chips,
better quantity pricing, no sweating running out of one part kept in
smaller quantity, (insert more bean counter stuff...)


Very interesting if you are refering to power resisters used in a
non switching power supply.

Your particular case sounds like they designed for one resistor and
designed very close to the function/failure edge, then rushed to
production only to discover the single resistor was too far over that
edge. Their solution was to quickly change the board design for four in
series-parallel but put them in the same space, since they already had
umpteen thousand resistors ordered or even in stock. It worked in test,
worked for a week or so running continuously... ship it!

... It would appear that I retired just in time
before engineering studies became out of fashion

Engineering studies aren't out of fashion, in fact they're more
intensive, involve a lot more computer modeling and help push the design
closer to the function/failure edge. Not out of fashion but a smaller
piece of the pie, now the design involves a lot more
design-for-manufacture including pick-and-place instead of a human
assembler, all SMT (see previous reason), least component count
possible, limited lifetime so you have to buy a new unit in a few years,
less 'robust design' and more 'economical,' higher profit and lower quality.

Don't blame the engineers, unless they went on to get an MBA after the
EE, ME, etc. I got out of private industry ten years ago for these
reasons, I was tired of design reviews where management pushed the 'you
can cut this out, it won't be so bad' line. Designs aren't for the
benefit of the customer, they are for the benefit of the stockholder and
the board of directors. What was 'The quality goes in before the name
goes on,' is now 'the profit is determined before the unit is produced.'
I'm not saying that profit isn't a good thing, just that it shouldn't
be the overwhelming thing.

73,
W8LNA