Whatever back at you.

You obviously have every strong opinions on this

Actually, I am burdened with direct knowledge based on experience so I never had the luxury of playing let's pretend, I had to actually produce.

And that's not just my opinion: when Gil Amelio took over National, and turned it back into a profitable company, the first problem he solved was exactly that: our marketing groups were located in the "Gleaming Tower" building with the CEO and all the big shots, and not in the "product areas" with the rest of the peons. That fostered an attitude of "being autonomous" and it showed. They did their thing their way and that was that. He forced them to move physical location and also were folded into the product lines. They didn't like it one bit. But after that they understood their fortunes were tied to the success of the products.

Exact same thing happened with every "remote" design center: they were in their own space, had their own management structure, so their goals did not align with our goals. A designer developing a linear regulator was also working on an audio amp and maybe an automotive IC. So, they had the standard "contractor" attitude which is to get something working as fast as possible and bail out so you can move to the next project.

I said, still say without fear of contradiction, moving resources away has exactly one and only one "benefit": cost savings. In every other way they penalize the people trying to produce new products. Been there, done that.

Just ask Apple.

 

Consider the positives of working at home: no commuting time or cost, choose your location, no BS jobs that somebody else screwed up, no casual conversations, management is not in your face all the time, help is a phone call away, etc. The company benefits too: no location cost, worker that can communicate (home workers do this or die), some of the best engineering jobs done on time and on budget.

That proves what I have been saying.

all the remotes had basically the same attitude: did not want to be bothered by "casual conversation"..... ie, asking them annoying questions. Nobody does.

You make a really good case as to why being remote benefits YOU..... and saves money for the company. Which is exactly what I have been saying all along. It's a great deal for them. But it has a price for others.

But here's the problem: at some point there has to be the guy who takes the irate call from the customer wanting to know why it blew up. The guy who has to drive over to HP and hold his hand and explain how it works. Who has to actually eyeball a problem first person, analyze it real time, and generate a solution. Or, in the case of the job of application engineer, you need to physically escort the marketeer to the customer so someone is there to answer technical question.

No question it's more convenient to have a distance wall to partition yourself away from all that. Just understand that there is somebody who has to do it. And that person wishes that he was also allowed the priviledge of having first person interaction when he needs information, not leaving a voice mail and waiting for a reply. Whomever is the "remote" gets that luxury because somebody else on site is doing the part of his job he is not there to do.

It's a whole different effect when the buck stops at your desk.

 

On the subject of physical presence: it's interesting how companies solve problems. There is a company called Linear Technology here in the valley which is composed almost entirely of "National Semiconductor Graduates" and so we had a lot of direct contact with people there. They have been very succesful at eating National's lunch for many years. VERY interesting how they solved the problems that had been causing us so much grief.

1) On the problem of "remote design" they didn't allow it. Designers located on premises and expected to BE PRESENT.

2) On the problem of "bailout attitude" they implemented a simple fix: the designers owned every product 100% for one year after date of release. No matter what the problem was or where it was, they had to handle it personally. That REALLY ups the motivation to get the bugs out before release.

3) On presence: you come to work with everybody else. One of our guys named Kevin use to "beat the commute" by coming in at 4AM and going home at 1PM. Of course nobody knew when he arrived, we were never there. We just knew he worked half days.

He went to Linear Tech and that lasted about two days. The engineering director saw him walking out at 1PM and wanted to know why.... he then informed Kevin that he could come in as early as he liked but his --- was going to be in the building between 8 and 5 like everybody else.

What a simple way to solve a problem.

 

Bountyhunter, you sound like a guy who couldn't be trusted enough to be allowed to work remote. By casual conversation I mean the guy who is killing time and wants me to chat with him about fishing or other non-work things. I saw so much idle non-work conversation going on at the factory that I wondered how they got any work done. The remotes always have time for serious work conversations.
Working remote the company has the benefit of my employment because I wouldn't work for them at the factory. I worked remote and I handled the fixing of so many factory mistakes that I was called the Fireman. About half the mistakes were the company's fault and about half the mistakes were the customer's fault. Factory engineers are the worst people you can get to troubleshoot problems because they always approach problems (and customers) with the "you screwed up attitude". I would never let a factory engineer within a mile of the customer unless I was with him. The factory's cry is "we tested it here an it functioned fine" which a bailout that doesn't solve the customer's problem or find out why their junk IC is so noise sensitive.
Your reply borders on panic when you discuss communication. It is much harder to get a response from factory people than remote people because every time you call a factory person they are in a meeting, or on a trip, or at a lunchen, or they just don't answer, or they hide from the truth about their poor design. I made it my business to take factory people to lunch and dinner every time I was at the factory so I could get to know them so they would take my calls.
I produced three times as much work being remote as I could produce at the factory. Google my name and discover the hundreds of app notes, journal articles, EDN colums, seminars, and a book I wrote in a few years and you will see that the volume of work exceeds that of any factory engineer considering that I traveled half the year.

 

On the subject of physical presence: it's interesting how companies solve problems. There is a company called Linear Technology here in the valley which is composed almost entirely of "National Semiconductor Graduates" and so we had a lot of direct contact with people there. They have been very succesful at eating National's lunch for many years. VERY interesting how they solved the problems that had been causing us so much grief.

1) On the problem of "remote design" they didn't allow it. Designers located on premises and expected to BE PRESENT.

2) On the problem of "bailout attitude" they implemented a simple fix: the designers owned every product 100% for one year after date of release. No matter what the problem was or where it was, they had to handle it personally. That REALLY ups the motivation to get the bugs out before release.

3) On presence: you come to work with everybody else. One of our guys named Kevin use to "beat the commute" by coming in at 4AM and going home at 1PM. Of course nobody knew when he arrived, we were never there. We just knew he worked half days.

He went to Linear Tech and that lasted about two days. The engineering director saw him walking out at 1PM and wanted to know why.... he then informed Kevin that he could come in as early as he liked but his --- was going to be in the building between 8 and 5 like everybody else.

What a simple way to solve a problem.

So simple that the engineer probably quit in a few days. If you admired LTC so much why didn't you go to work for them?

By the way, National was just purchased by TI, so should TI move National to Texas or is working remote just a matter of size in your mind?
P.S., the Apple problems have no bearing on this discussion because remote manufacturing is a simple case of a cost reduction that was improperly monitored. Likewise, remote engineers need to be monitored, and the quality and volume of their work output is the best indicator of performance.

 

Horray!
Ron Mancini of Texas Instruments is here.
Hello Your Majesty, Your Honour. You are a GOD, sir.

You show a good example of working remotely.

 

Engineers ... that are too incompetent to be able to make things work get out of it as fast as they can. Many go into marketing, where all they have to do is sling baloney all day and commit other people's time and skills to doing things.

I was amenin' right along until you got there, but now you've stopped preachin' and started meddlin'.

Seriously, there are many of us here with lots of years of experience. Mine happens to be mostly in marketing, but I knew enough to recognize that engineers (often some of the best) were extremely capable of slinging their own brand of tube steak...the old "baffle him with bs" tactic..."after all, he's a marketing guy and won't know the difference."