The engineering process: at work and home

  • Published
  • By Charlie Jenkins
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  For most of us, we chose an engineering career to fulfill our interest and desire to understand how things work and how to make them work better.

We immerse ourselves into the "engineering process" and focus all our energies to this work each day of our lives.

Many professionals today, including engineers, have many tools at their disposal to improve our work, increase our output and improve the quality of our work. Things such as cell phones, Internet, email, e-conferencing and remote data collection equipment allow many tasks to be completed from the comfort of our offices. Although a huge benefit to the company, many of us lose focus on our health and our lack of physical movement starts to rapidly deteriorate our health.

I was no exception.

After 20 years in my engineering career, I had gained more than 100 pounds, had severe back and hip pain, had trouble sleeping due to sleep apnea and could no longer lead an active lifestyle. Strangely, the work I did to fund these activities, actually caused me to no longer have the ability to do them.

One day, it came to me that I was an expert at solving problems and maintaining equipment at work, but I was not applying my engineering skills to my body and health. The equipment I was responsible for at work operated at optimal performance and reliability. I had all the engineering tools and problem-solving skills right in front of me and one day I decided to apply them to my own body and health.

First, I determined at what level I wanted my body to perform at, i.e., my body's design conditions. This is different for each person, but for me, I wanted to regain my ability to have an active lifestyle (hiking, sports, home improvements, etc.).

I determined all the "failure modes" that were preventing me from achieving this. The list included my weight, my severe lower back and hip pain, and my sleep problems caused by sleep apnea.

Without diving into the details of the corrective action process, I implemented the following repairs to my body: lower back spinal fusion, two total hip replacements, and lost more than 80 pounds. These corrective actions have brought my performance back in line with my desired operating conditions. I am now pain free and have walked more than 900 miles just this year.

As engineers here at AEDC, we are trained to solve problems.

For instance, as a system engineer you have the responsibility to utilize your engineering and problem solving skills to implement and maintain equipment that is vital to support AEDC's mission.

For example, a large axial compressor requires you to implement rigorous operating work instructions and maintain the equipment through detailed maintenance plans. Critical parts of this compressor are bearings, lube oil system, blade clearances and pitch and the drive motor characteristics.

As an engineer, you spend hundreds of hours thinking about, researching, testing, and implementing changes that provide the optimal functionality of the compressor.

Now compare these efforts to your personal habits and health.

Your body is no different than the compressor and look at the difference when we use and maintain our bodies. I am not sure why we engineers don't apply the same level of care and maintenance to our health! We do everything in our knowledge and ability to ensure that the compressor is 100 percent ready at all times and can perform at the highest level, but we leave our bodies to chance. Don't we want our bodies to be 100 percent ready at all times and perform at the highest level for God, our family and friends?

So, I challenge all engineers to use engineering knowledge and skills to evaluate, plan, and implement proper operating and maintenance plans for our bodies.

Be sure to operate your body within your design conditions. Most of us are designed for far greater performance than we actually perform at.

Implement rigorous maintenance plans for your body with respect to weight, nutrition, exercise, and annual physicals.

Lastly, we know that equipment failures WILL occur.

Just as we do when these failures occur here at work, when your body fails, study the failure, determine the root cause of the failure, implement corrective actions and adjust operating and maintenance plans accordingly.

You are an expert engineer to operate and maintain AEDC's most vital equipment. Become an expert at operating and maintaining your most important piece of equipment, your body.

(Guest editorial by Charles Jenkins, a systems engineering support engineer with General Physics at AEDC).