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A guy who catches all the crap thrown of the wheels.
Shop instuctions for engineering sketches. Implies the exact details are not very important.
A flurry of activity related to an important visit or presentation. Fire drill activities are rarely productive.
To force someone to do something required, but unpleasant. Normally done by enforcing obscure contact clauses buried in the Boiler PLate .
A contract to be performed for an initially specified fixed price. All the risk is on the contractor.
Technical people who attend to a shop queen. The implication is that the system or hardware are unreliable or poorly designed.
The string of bosses & supervisors directly above you. Only people in your food chain can have any real effect on your career.
For your information, or F*** You Immediatly.
Personal work done on company time.
A minor contract change that the subcontractor can use to recover costs that would otherwise not be paid, esp. if the sub is having technical problems. " Hey, they want us to paint the missile gray instead of OD! It's get well time!"
Make it work and get it out the door. A reference to Gylptol, a clear nail polish like substance that is used to hold coils in place.
Something that has more features, functions, or paperwork than really required. Most military hardware is 'Gold Plated' often leading to the $600 hammer syndrome.
Something that you hold the patent on, but anyone could manufacture. A useless patent.
A reference piece of hardware, similar to a shop queen. The gold standard meets all specifications, and is used as a reference for calibration of specifications that are defined relatively. For example, an amplifier may have a transmission phase spec where the buyer doesn't care what the exact phase is, only that all amplifiers are the same.
A method to browbeat vendors. One person (usually a contracting officer or high level manager) is the Bad Cop, who rant & raves and makes unreasonable demands. The other 'Good Cop' is sympathetic, conciliatory, helpful, and finds out what the real problems are.
A quirk in a circuit of design that makes things not work.
Free overtime, uncompensated.
Group Grope - Any large meeting or review.
Army or other military personal who will use or maintain equipment. The implication is they are untrained, and will damage or misuse anything if there is even the remotest possibility of so doing.
To gloss over a difficult problem, especially in a review.
Complaining or whining.
A telephone with an anonymous number used to contact a classified program or custom. The phone is to be answered only with "Hello".
Unwanted or overbearing management influence, especially in response to a real or perceived problem. If we don't get this subcontractor back on track, were going to get 'help' from upper management
Most references to a horse imply Screw you and the horse you rode in on. The term is of Military origin.
ICD - Interface control document - A desciption of the connection and fit between every assemble in a system.
Interchangable Faceless Units. Engineers.
ility Guys - people involved i n producability, mantainability, reliabilty, safety. etc. Typically degreed engineers, although looked down upon by the designers.
An Oxymoron. Used to trap the unwary into admitting things they would rather not.
Student hired for a short duration to do grunt work. Often related to upper management. While occasionally useful, it is often more difficult to find stuff for them to do than to do it yourself. Sometimes they are quite attractive.
Common electronic parts.
To reveal or discover confidential business data, such as costs or technical problems. We'll have to let them see inside our kimono if we want to sign a joint venture agreement.
Joking response to an inquiry about a classified program. "What are you working these days?" " I'll have to kill you if you ask me that again."
As more units are built, the cost per unit should drop due to increased experience. Learning curve is a plot of unit cost per units built. It can be negative.
Engineering slang for a circuit burning up. " Oops, looks like Joe let the smoke out of the power supply again."
Drawing that are prepared to a MIL SPEC. Level 1 is simpler than Level 3. These drawings are very expensive to prepare, and often contain no more information than Contractor Format drawings.
An activity that has no real milestones, but has to be done on an on-going basis. Drawing control, stockroom, legal support are all examples.
Limited Rate Initial Production - the building of more than one, but less than' many' systems. Represents a transition of engineering development to production.
Line Replaceable Unit. A module than can be replaced near the front line.
A decision to either buy a part from a subcontractor, or make it internally.
You will be the pinnacle of a mediocre career most of your professional life.
When high level management becomes involved in many small decisions that are perhaps best delegated. Also known as 'Help'.
a type of component that has undergone extensive testing and documentation, but is otherwise identical to a commercial part. They are very expensive, and becoming obsolete. Their main advantage is they come with a 'reliability number', which is plugged into a model to predict MTFB.
A sticky cloth tape, usually brown of silver. Also called Duct tape of Gaffing tape.
Mean Time Between Failures. The average, mean,median or modal time from when something must be fixed to when it must be fixed again. Implies that the item is repairable.
Mean time to fail - The average, mean,median or modal time from when something is new to when it must be fixed. Implies that the item is not repairable.
People kept in the dark and fed horse manure.
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