Death of the shadetree
mechanic?
Insights
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Technology has shifted many former engineering functions to software or
electronics over the past couple of decades, and that trend shows few signs
of slowing. Let’s take mobile hydraulics as an example. In my career, I’ve met
a lot hydraulics people — from system designers to founders of component
manufacturers — who started off as teenagers either on the farm, working
on equipment, or in the driveway, working on their car. These kinds of
mechanical lessons often proved invaluable in their later movement into
engineering design.
But today’s modern agricultural equipment users have been grumbling
about some aspects of progress the last few years. Outlets as varied as WIRED
magazine, Forbes and The Guardian have all covered the “right to repair” issue
(which also extends to consumer electronics and other items). Some farmers
are fighting back against the trend for OEMs to require all repairs to be done
only by authorized repair shops or technicians.
Greg Downs, Senior Principal Engineer, Zoomlion Heavy Industry NA
Inc., spoke with me about this issue at this Spring’s Fluid Power Technology
Conference in Milwaukee, and he noted that when he was growing up, he used
to work on cars a lot himself.
“We’d build an engine and we didn’t have to have a PhD to do it — but you
can’t do that anymore. The reason is because they have cars that are more
reliable and a better quality. You give up simplicity for the complexity, because
they are better performing, more efficient,” he said.
“Several years ago, I was talking to a farmer about his combine harvester,”
Downs said. “He explained how he could work on it during his harvest, when
the machines had a lot of belts and chains and mechanical drives. But I told
him that he’d been asking for much higher productivity, more speed, bigger
grain tanks, longer seasons. All of these things mean more efficiency. So, you
give up some of that ease of maintenance for systems that are much more
complex but also simplified; your software diagnoses issues. In order to get the
higher production, the higher efficiencies — that’s what you give up. The days
of being a shadetree mechanic, going out and changing out things is becoming
less and less.”
Some engineers who learned mechanics the old-fashioned way might not
be able to handle all the new changes. The truth is that today, we need experts
to fix things — that means engineers comfortable with electronics and sensors
and software in addition to the mechanics. And really, this is just one more
lesson that adapting to change might be the best lesson we can learn early on
in our careers. DWPaul J. Heney - VP, Editorial Director
[email protected]On Twitter @ DW—EditorDW Insights 8-19_Vs1.indd 4 8/5/19 3:19 PM