Paul Johnston's Blog
Paul Johnston's Blog RSSPeople who plan, prepare and perform.
Here’s something new in this blog – a post I’ve mostly not written. Below is a response from Russell Forsyth on the subject of the how to get that “time to value” in an implementation which I addressed last time. He’s a Senior Consultant with Mentor Consulting Division Americas. We’ll try and keep this under 20,000 words by not going through Russ’ successes and accolades.
Russ has the view competent teams and individuals base their success on the discipline of a project management methodology to keep implementations of Capital locked on to their business targets.
Feel free to make you own opinions known via the comments on this important subject.
Tags: best practice, Capital, CHS Tips and Tricks, deployment, implementation projects, jumpstart engagements, Mentor Consulting, methods, Outsourced Integrated Electrical Systems Software, pilot projects, Process Model, Training
In Capital Deployment – tell me Paul – who’s the worthiest of them all?
All-Stars
Occasionally in these blog postings I have highlighted contributions from team players who make Capital a pathway to business efficiency for their companies.
They were … (click blue for link)
- Librarians: Without the underpinning of a complete, comprehensive and accurate electro-mechanical library your automation of engineering processes is diluted.
- Product Managers at Mentor Graphics: Capital software products are architected, designed and realized into the market place by smart and talented people. The success of the software at customers is thanks in very large part to how their vision was nutured all the way out into the marketplace by them.
- Information Technology Professionals: They keep the application alive, they feed it with bandwidth and upgrade it and scale it and provide you with all the hardware, security, backup and configuration. Hard work which is often invisible though essential and so well done that to you it seems easy – but just imagine if you had to do it for yourself.
- Educators:Teach a person how to fish and they may complain that you were supposed to teach them how to use Capital instead. Every wise person acknowledges the debt they owe to teachers. It is important to go from theoretical knowledge and new immediate use of the software to a practical experience of how to apply new technologies as your company changes important business practices. As roles and relationships adapt to a new corporate direction being prepared to learn puts you in charge of your destiny.
Tags: Application Engineers, Automotive Electrical and Electronic Systems Design, Capital, CHS, Electrical Distribution System, Expertise, implementation projects, Integrated Electrical Systems, Mentor Consulting, Product Manager, Training
Keep no Secrets, Inflict no Surprises.
Out with the old, in with the new.
In my last blog I made some serious points in a lighthearted way about the importance of communication. Quite often when you get to lay your hands on some new features of the Capital software, you do it without some lead-in steps. Especially if 1) you have been anticipating new functionality, and 2) you are by nature an enthusiastic early adopter it is hard for me to stress so you will 3) truly take notice 4) how much benefit there is from managing the transition to a new version.
Bear with me and put your enthusiasm aside for a few minutes only whilst I make a few points to your advantage.
Tags: Automotive Electrical and Electronic Systems Design, best practice, Capital, Capital Insight, Capital Level Manager, Capital MPM, Capital Version 2011.1, CHS, deployment, Electrical Interconnect Design, Version upgrade
No vacationing during the holidays then.
Some people in the English speaking world will be puzzled by the title. Even with English as a first language you may have to think for a few moments to understand it properly. It is an illustration of the troublesome elasticity of the language. In business competing usage, obscure meanings can be more than a nuisance. it is a time waster for people not to understand quickly. It can be costly for people to misunderstand partially or wholly.
Strength in diversity, collective effort and the overstretched analogy.
My excuse for no blog posting has recently been a very good one. Thanks the generosity of my employers and the miracle of new life I have been on extended paternity leave. Now I’m back and raring to go again.
Tags: Capital, customers, deployment, Mentor Consulting
Blunt talking happens at the sharp end.
Developing global platform cars is not easy. The workload of engineers designing electrical interconnect and delivering a manufacturing BOM for suppliers is considerable. The reality of electrical and electronic feature proliferation in a vehicle platform is somewhere between harsh and vicious for electrical design and wiring engineers.
Tags: Automotive Electrical and Electronic Systems Design, automotive wiring harness, Capital, Capital Harness, Capital Harness Systems, CHS, circuit design software, Electrical Design, Electrical Design Systems, Electrical Distribution Systems, Electrical Interconnect Design, Wire Harness, Wiring Harness
In praise of the trainers.
I highlighted the powerful influence of customer lbrarians in delivering automation in the design of electrical systems’ interconnects using the capital suite of programs. Librarians get proficient initially through the ministrations of a trainer to guide them through the concepts of the software and how these apply to their working lives. I’ve also singled out the product management staff who convert their professional expertise and their personal understanding of users’ and marketplace needs into finished product. This group of people brings the new modules (e.g. Capital Architect and Capital Modular XC) into being. Afterwards it is work of the Educational Services Group of Mentor to author a training course. Trainers have a challenging job and it is really well done.
Tags: Automotive Electrical and Electronic Systems Design, Capital, Capital Harness XC, CHS, Customer Support, Electrical Interconnect Design, Training, Wiring Harness
The things you should “just know” – IESF Detroit and Capital
Aren’t we just all happy people to be living in the information golden age? Maybe it just seems good now, and in a couple of centuries this will be seen as the iron age of information technology, one step on from the hunter-gatherers’ life of gleaning scraps of wisdom from the library shelves.
Tags: Automotive Electrical and Electronic Systems Design, automotive wiring harness, Capital, Capital Harness Systems, Capital Library, CHS, Customer Support, Detroit, IESF, Mentor Communities
No shock in the new any more.
CHS 2010.2 had a public release in the middle of January. So approximately six weeks have passed where customer have been able to get their hands on this fresh juicy ripe piece of software and install it and admire it. People like myself could get advance builds of the release and prod and poke around, er, sorry diligently work through serious customer use cases. There’s always something new in CHS it seems, new is almost commonplace.
Tags: automotive wiring harness, Capital, Capital Integrator, car electrical system, CHS, circuit design software, Design Assistant, Electrical Distribution System, Generative Design, Release 2010.2, vehicle wiring products
Listen – IESF 2011 Detroit Date announced as June 2nd 2011.
Out and about on the last day of January I saw a house which still sported the snowflake outdoor lights and the colored lights on the fir tree. That’s a little late, the second month just starting. And the year seems to be moving quickly to me. CHS 2010.2 released and already installed on a few computers I can mention and people are exploring the Capital Modular XC harness design capabilities in this latest version and the System Vision Integration has been keenly anticipated in the technical community which supports CHS at customers. About sixty new features have been put into CHS. Also worthy of note is that it is a mere 5 months now to June 2nd. This is the date of what is going to be probably the biggest Integrated Electrical Solutions Forum so far.
Tags: automotive wiring harness, autosar tools, Capital Harness Systems, car electrical system, CHS, circuit design software, Detroit, Electrical Distribution Systems, electrical wiring systems, IESF, user conferences, vehicle wiring products, wire harness cad, wire harness design
About Paul Johnston's Blog
Capital is Mentor Graphics' global market-leading software for electrical system design, electrical analysis, system integration, cabling and wiring design, harness engineering and service documentation. My job title is Senior Application Engineer Consultant - that's a subject matter expert label if you don't want to work out what it means. Here are some of my observations and views - comment on them at your pleasure.
Latest Posts
- People who plan, prepare and perform.
- In Capital Deployment – tell me Paul – who’s the worthiest of them all?
- Keep no Secrets, Inflict no Surprises.
- No vacationing during the holidays then.
- Strength in diversity, collective effort and the overstretched analogy.
- Blunt talking happens at the sharp end.