Over-engineering

I recently did an editorial about over-engineering and got quite a few responses. Some were from the American branches of German companies that got a chuckle from the over-engineering mentality that I described. One fellow told me that Americans are the new Germans when it comes to over engineering. I hope people don’t take the editorial as a criticism of German engineering, which is usually brilliant. There are just as many examples of Japanese or Dutch or American over-engineering. I did mention the absurd BMW iDrive in the editorial and so, with the warning that I am not specifically criticizing Germans, here is what Stu Michaels write me:

I just read your article on overengineering.  I couldn’t agree with you more.

You finished with a mention of the BMW iDrive.  I happen to have a BMW with the iDrive.  Aside from the annoyance of having to go through all the menus to do something simple, I need to use the iDrive to check the oil level.

Some fool engineer at BMW decided to improve on the dipstick.  The dipstick was replaced with an electronic oil level sensor that is accessed through iDrive.  Then the engineer decided that you cannot get an accurate oil level reading if the oil is cold so he set it up that iDrive won’t tell you the oil level until the engine is warm.  Furthermore, he added a delay so there would be no indication for a few minutes after starting a warm engine.

The net result is that if this sensor says to add a quart of oil, which you do with the engine off, of course, you can’t see if the quart you added brought the level up to where it should be until the engine has been started and running for a few minutes.  Definitely an annoyance.

I could live with these annoyances except for the fact that today, for the second time in a year, the oil level sensor is giving incorrect data.  It says the oil level is low and I should add one quart.  I did so and after the delay, it says the oil is low and I should add one quart!  Two days ago, I checked the level and it was full.  There’s no oil under the car or on the engine and I’ve only driven 20 miles since.  Last year I had the same problem and they replaced the defective oil sensor.

The idiots didn’t even leave a dipstick as a backup.  Last year I had put in two quarts before deciding the sensor was faulty.  So BMW had to drain the oil and replace it since they didn’t know what the real level was.  To add salt to the wound, they damaged the seal on the oil drain plug which let go one day and dumped all the oil in a parking lot!

I think the proper way to engineer is to use the KISS principle (and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).

So yes, BMW engineers are just as prone to over engineering as NASA engineers are. As a matter of fact the extreme complexity of the space shuttle is one reason it blows up about every 200 flight hours. Stu also wrote that the BMW is a 2006 model the next time he is buying an American car. I used to be an automotive engineer in Detroit, working for GM and Ford. I now drive a Honda, so I don’t know if Stu will be happier with an American car or not. I do now that American engineers seem to have that analog sense of importance and the new GM cars are about equal in quality to Japanese cars. About time. Still I get weary when in the same week my friend Karen tells me she drives 40k miles a year and has 230k miles on her Toyota, my friend Everardo tells me his 2006 Hummer has a leaky valve and needs a motor job. Sigh. On whole I am still glad I gave up on the US auto business and moved to Silicon Valley. Bruce Hyman, another reader sent me the quote: “Simplicate, and add lightness” attributed to both airplane whiz WB Stout, Ed Heinemann and Lotus founder Colin Chapman. Good advice for all engineers.