• Dem Bosain
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    11 months ago

    Engineer here. It’s like that because that’s the way it’s always been. To change it would mean retooling silk-screen printing on the D-pad, and changing the wiring underneath. And they probably use this D-pad everywhere, so someone like me will have to talk to someone else like me, and right now I have phone shyness (can’t just be an email, have to call a meeting). I’ll also have to talk to a supplier and get them to change the wiring, and Procurement won’t let me just change anything, because it gives suppliers a chance to requote a job, and they’ll ask for more money. And then I’ll have to talk to Production, because they’ll have to retrain the workers, make sure someone doesn’t stop the line because this new part doesn’t look exactly like the old part. Oh, and Quality of course, need to make sure the inspectors don’t start rejecting the new parts (just kidding, they never look at parts). Then there’s Marketing. Since this is a customer-facing part, definitely need their input. Might have to change catalogs and brochures with new pictures.

    No, they just got the good brand of gummy bears in the cafeteria, I’m going to go buy a bag of those, and then fill out these forms my new boss has been asking about. New boss, new forms, same old shit.

    • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Sounds like a proper project to me. No wonder companies keep the same stuff for way too long. If it’s not horribly broken and on fire, don’t fix it. Being slightly broken is apparently totally fine though.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Nothing personal, but that’s bullshit on the company. Rotate the entire assembly 90° to the direction where the next track arrow points right, and counter rotate the ok gel button so that it’s properly up and down. I can’t imagine a silk screen template is that engrained. There might be some mounting screw difference, but adjust that in manufacturing from your parts suppliers. No reengineering of the harness necessary. This is just pure laziness.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        11 months ago

        You have allready missed details, this would be worse than before.

        For two reasons:

        The customers who are used to this scheme will have to relearn the button placement, this will generate complaints, so the change will generate bad PR for the brand for years as people upgrade their car and have to relearn the controls.

        If we went with your suggestion, the volume buttons would be 90 degrees off.