36 January & February 2021 http://www.elektormagazine.com
The work bench of the late Bob Pease, inventor of the in-beard
breadboard, is an infamous example of a messy workspace [1]. We
know better of course but an unsuspecting layman will have trouble
spotting the difference between our bench and a photo of a disaster
area after a tropical cyclone has passed through. Although often
incorrectly attributed to Albert Einstein, we can still take solace
in the quote: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of
what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
Chaos is not only a theory
Although I have much to learn from Bob Pease, I have to admit with
blushing cheeks that I am an incorrigible slob. With my unstoppa-
ble tendency for ‘heap forming’ I have driven my parents, many a
former employer and even my partner to desperation.
Years ago I was particularly busy with SMD components and we
all know that it is better to leave them in their little bags, unless
you want them to get lost or all mixed up. From this good habit
the little bags with components piled up and, after a while, I had
multiple stacks of storage boxes filled with various components.
The consequences are predictable: every time I wanted to build
a small series of circuit boards I spent more time looking for all
the parts than the time it took to populate and reflow the boards
themselves. How often have I ordered parts again that I still had
but could not find quickly enough or — even worse — deliberately
not ordered components that were desperately required because I
incorrectly thought I still had plenty of them. There was, therefore,
plenty of scope for improvement...Many of us have a tendency to sort their components nicely by type
and by value in storage containers or cabinets with drawers, with
the surreptitious ulterior motive of collecting as complete a series
of values as possible, such as the entire E24-series of resistors. This
is a relatively good system for hobbyists, electronics designers and
repairers but, when you are involved with manufacturing, this is
far from flexible.I buy the basic components and their through-hole equivalents in
large quantities, depending on what I need for my products. As such
it is not so wise to have thousands of every value of resistor in the
E24-series in stock (as an example) when more than three-quar-
ters of those values are practically never used. And that doesn’t
even take into consideration sorting them all nicely into drawers.Thanks to a little industrial espionage during an open-day at one
of our suppliers I have come up with a better system. I now use
racks and boxes where every box has its own code that indicates its
location, such as “A5K0”. This means rack “A”, shelf “5”, position “K”
and then the first box from front to back. To know where a compo-From Life’s Experience
The fine line between order and chaos
By Ilse Joostens (Belgium)
Every now and then I go somewhere and
it occurs to me that the desk of the typical
electronics engineer stands in sharp contrast
to that of the typical ‘bean counter’. The
latter probably reflects an almost unhealthy,
nearly sadistic desire to organise the world.
Conversely, for the electronics engineers,
chaos is trump and their workstation often
looks like it is awaiting the arrival of a
HAZMAT team.
developer‘s zone
The classic bean counter, also known as an accountant.