Vision Based Hiring

Engineered Software has been expanding our team these past few months and it has been a pretty exciting time. Since September, ESI’s vision for the future has continued to mold and evolve as our team rethinks how we provide our customers with innovative tools to increase the efficiency of fluid pumping systems through superior pump selection and system simulation software.

We’re not only looking at what products we’re developing, we’re also looking at how we do what we do. We are examining how we communicate with our substantial customer base, how we strive to provide world-class customer service, how we work through our Product Life Cycle, and how teams are structured and interact to produce an innovative and robust development process.

Part of the discussion is around what we want to change, another component is around what gaps exist between the skills we have now and what will be needed in the future. To pursue these future goals, we’ve embraced a culture which speaks up about solutions; pursues a collective, analytical response to problem solving; and provides thoughtful and honest retrospectives. As a whole company, we  strive to be visionaries who weave ideas with the ideas of others, with a management team who works to create a nurturing environment to support and empower our teams.

We’ve also worked hard to identify new skill-sets that will propel our mission, determined to hire people onto the team who possess these skills, share our company culture and believe in our vision. During the interview process, we know when we’ve found someone who fits, because they go from interested in the job to really wanting to work here.

Overall, change is hard, it’s confusing, we’ve all been there and sometimes it’s just not fun….but change is also exciting, empowering and inspiring. And what you’re left with, if you do it right, is a springboard for some exciting future endeavors.

- Christy Bermensolo, CEO

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We would like to introduce our readers to the guest author for this month's entry. This post was written by Engineered Software's newly appointed CEO, Christy Bermensolo, and we would like to welcome her to the new role.

Christy Bermensolo began with Engineered Software in 2006, and brings over 16 years of engineering and management experience to her new position. To learn more about the new leadership changes at ESI, VISIT HERE.


We are also hiring right now and if you are interested in relocation to the Lacey, Washington area, check out our available positions here:

The First PIPE-FLO 12 Training

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 32 seconds. Read Later

I just got back from running two weeks of training in Bahrain. The client had two groups of 16 engineers that went through our two-day Piping System Fundamentals course followed by our two-day FLO-Master course on our PIPE-FLO software. This also happened to be the first FLO-Master training course we conducted for the newly released PIPE-FLO Professional 12. Since the Piping System Fundamentals course had not been recently change, that course went smoothly and lead perfectly into the FLO-Master course.

Before releasing any new program, the entire development team is on pins and needles worrying about a myriad of details; Will the customers like what we have done? Is the user interface as easy to use as we think? Will they like the new group edit feature? Will someone find a bug that somehow missed our testing?

What really made this exciting is that Bahrain is half way around the world from Lacey, Washington, with an 11-hour difference in time zones. I also learned that the workweek in Bahrain starts on a Sunday. As a result, when I started the class on Sunday morning in Bahrain, it was Saturday evening in Lacey where all our support staff is located.

Since we have a top notch customer support group that has set up hundreds of training centers for our PIPE-FLO class I wasn’t worried about the software installation. Once again, this is the brand new PIPE-FLO 12 program and the training material was still fresh from the printers. First runs will make anyone nervous, even a training and PIPE-FLO veteran like myself.

There were 14 attendees in each course, and 3-4 people in each group had experience with PIPE-FLO 2009, but the majority had no previous PIPE-FLO experience. We started out by exploring the PIPE-FLO interface starting with the existing FLO-Sheet then introducing the new Toolbox, Property Grid, List and Message windows.

In our FLO-Master 12 course, we tend to spend more time on how to make the most of our piping simulation software. Our users fall into three groups, people involved in designing piping systems, those involved in testing and commissioning system, and those who operate and maintain piping systems. Each one of these groups has special needs, and PIPE-FLO’s new flexible interface allows each group to customize the interface to best meet their needs. With the attendees familiarized to the way the program looks and basic functionality, I then moved into the usage and case study portion of the course.

In the first case study, we design a caustic dilution system with two centrifugal pumps, two control valves, static mixer and multiple tanks. In addition to the “how-to” steps dealing with equipment selection we also discuss ways for arriving at a reasonable design margin for pump and control valve selection.

Design options are quickly and easily modeled using new functionality that speeds up the drawing process, including the expanded group select and edit features. For example, by selecting all the pipelines in the project then using the property grid, you can change the pipe spec and fluid zone from the drop down list boxes and all selected pipelines are updated. This greatly reduces the time it takes to build a piping system model.

The second case study has two sections. The first section deals with building onto an existing piping system model and validating the changes to the model. The second section takes the recently created piping system and uses it to help troubleshoot a maintenance problem followed by a process modification.

Prior to building the piping system model, we discuss the various design documents that can be used to build an accurate piping system model. Once all design information it is entered into the PIPE-FLO model, it should provide an accurate representation of the initial system design. Conducting the walk down enables designers to determine if any non-documented changes were made to the system.

The final element in building the model is to validate the systems operation. Taking actual readings from the real piping system and comparing them to the piping system model. The FLO-Master course covers which elements and readings are best to collect and validate.

Once the mode is set to accurately represent current system operation, the simulation is run and the calculated results are compared to the plants operating data. We then move on to the second section of this case study and troubleshoot the system to determine where any problems may lie.

The second section of the case study deals with how the model is used in troubleshooting the operation of a system and how the model can be used to conduct plant studies. In the final example a new process load is added to the system and we discover why the system is unable to meet the new process demands. More importantly with the PIPE-FLO model, we are able to evaluate possible system modification that will meet the new process requirements quickly and without having to do any modifications to the actual running system.

The final example was opened to the attendees and I encouraged them to bring a real piping system they currently evaluating. One of the participants brought in a project that he recently inherited. He wanted to model the system under PIPE-FLO so he could compare the pump needs to the pump that was previously selected.

After building the model and sizing the pump, the engineer was able to determine the required total pump head. His calculated pump head requirement was 24 ft of head at the design flow rate. He then compared that to the pump selected and was surprised to see the selected pump produced 240 ft of head at the design flow rate. During his presentation to the attendees, he said he believed the pump was over sized, but he never imagined it would be to that extent. He was able to make the analysis of his system in less than 2 hours!

There were complements galore about PIPE-FLO 12 especially from the 6 people that had used PIPE-FLO 2009. The toughest critics we will likely have will be the users of earlier versions of PIPE-FLO since the program will look much different from before. Their encouraging responses were music to my ears since this was really the introduction of the new PIPE-FLO program as much as it was the new FLO-Master training material.

When I got back to the office, I shared the class’ PIPE-FLO 12 and FLO-Master feedback with the development team. Now that the program was officially released, and with a positive initial reception, they were all smiles. I was all smiles that I accomplished the first public presentation of the new training material! I expect great things from the coming year and I’m truly excited to share the next generation of PIPE-FLO with everyone.

Click to Learn More about PIPE-FLO Professional 12

I Have a Problem with Issues

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes 48 seconds. Read Later

I have a Problem with Issues...

One thing I have noticed over the years is that the word problem is being replaced by the word issue. It seems no one has problems any more, we only have issues. (And don't even get me started on challenges.) For example, while watching TV the other night, I heard a news caster reporting on a Twitter outage as saying,

“Twitter users are experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Their engineers are currently working to resolve the issue.”

Since Engineered Software offers Software as a Service to our PUMP-FLO customers I understand the necessity for their website to remain up and running at all times. I also understand what it takes to maintain this up-time and what it means when there are unplanned outages. Knowing this, I would imagine that with their primary and backup servers down, and no activity on their site for more than an hour, the engineers at Twitter had a full-fledged problem on their hands.

I wanted to investigate the difference between problems and issues, so like all Internet aged people that want a quick “answer” to a question I did a Google search on "Problem vs. Issue." What I found was a lot of sappy crap written in forums that could be summarized as this; issues can be discussed and corrected, but problems were big and nasty and couldn’t be solved. (I once used that definition of problem in my differential equations class in college, but my professor took issue with that.)

The word problem, is still in limited use, but I have yet to hear a math teacher assign any homework issues.

I then decided to look up the definition in a dictionary so I went to Wikipedia®. They had usage examples of the two words but no definitions. I then clicked on their disclaimer page and found out they make no guarantee of validity. Since I feel as though my blog readers deserved a guarantee of validity, I decided to look up the definitions in a paper dictionary. Webster surely guarantees their definitions.

I went around the office and asked 15 people if I could borrow their dictionary. The responses ranged from, “Let me get my phone” to “What, is the internet down?” along with similar refrains. Only one person in our office of 35 had a paper dictionary and after he found a similar sized book to hold up his monitor he loaned it to me. It was a Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 10th edition. One good thing Merriam Webster’s has a Website that lists their definitions as well, so if you have difficulty finding a paper dictionary in your office I have provided the following links to their Website.

Problem: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/problem

Issue: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/issue

The first thing I notice is that problem has only two uses, and they both relate to questions raised for inquiry or an unsettled question. This is a straight forward definition that can be understood by all.

Issue on the other hand, has NINE uses of the word, ranging from: the proceeds from a source of revenue, the action of coming or going, a means of going out, a financial outcome, a final conclusion or decision, a discharge of blood from the body, something coming from a specific source, and the act of publishing or officially giving out or making available. Item six on their usage list is “a matter that is in dispute between two or more parties.”

So how did we get to the point of calling our problems issues? It surely wasn’t to make the sentence easier to understand. For example, if someone says “I have an issue with my eye,” do they mean they are having a bloody discharge from their eye, or are they saying their eye is having a matter of dispute with their nose? More than likely, they didn’t want to upset anyone around them with their (possibly serious) problems.

I think people have stopped using the word problem because of our phobia with math. Just ask any parent of a high school student taking first year of algebra. Unless the parent majored in math, a physical science, or engineering, the typical response is “I really have issues with math.” What they are trying to say is if they must think too much about their kid’s math assignment they may overload their brain and have a bloody discharge coming from their ears.

So in the future I will always strive to use the word problem when it relates to a question raised for inquiry or any unsettled question. I will still strive to arrive at a solution to my problem, either by by conducting research (Wikipedia and Google don’t count unless the citation can be documented) or until I gain an understanding of my problem and arrive at a solution. I also may sit down with a group of people to discuss the facts of the problem and strive to arrive at a solution that is agreeable to all.

I will leave the word issues to bloody discharges from a body, when a stamp or stock is released, or when I want to have a never ending discussion about something that is ill defined and has no point. Those are my only issues with this word problem of clarity. When I was in the Navy we called them “Sea Stories.”

So this is my stand against jargon, incorrect language usage and unclear communication. I am tired of my industry skirting around problems by calling them issues, so I am taking a stand with this blog post. Let’s all be honest about our Problems vs. Issues and call a spade a spade! Because you can't solve a problem until you admit there is one.

Who’s with me?

You can leave your comments below or send me an email to blogger@eng-software [dot] com. We really do read every one!

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Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation. 

A Wonderful Sunday in Rotterdam

Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes 23 seconds. Read Later

This almost sounds like it will be a travel blog, but not so fast.

I just got back from a two week business trip in Europe and would like to share some of my experiences.  First thing that I must admit is I hate to travel on business. That said I need to disclosed I just went over 1 million miles on United Airlines (that’s actual “butt-in-seat” miles, no bonus miles on that figure). I am a gold member for a variety of hotel chains, and I recently had to send in my passport to get additional visa pages, so I really do spend a lot of time traveling. However, it’s the traveling part I hate, the “getting to the next stop,” not the actual visits or meetings or any of the ground stuff.


I may hate to travel but I truly enjoy visiting customers so I am always looking forward to my next trip. I look forward to finding out how customers do their jobs, what we could do to make their job easier, and discover their daily job challenges. In addition I get to meet a lot of interesting people along the way.
  
So let’s talk about the “glamor” of international travel. 

I always show up at the airport two hours early just to be on the safe side. After checking in with United I discovered my flight from Seattle to Chicago was 100% full, but on the flight to London Heathrow I should have a row to myself. I finished reading my e-mail in the Red Carpet Club in SeaTac, and then boarded the flight for Chicago. I always read a book (paper not electronic) when I fly, I have long since given up working on my computer because of the tight spacing between the seats. In Chicago I discovered the overnight flight to London was full, seems like a flight to Germany was canceled and all those passengers were now re-routed through London. There went the open seats next to me. After I was seated, I started talking to my new row mate. I discovered that he was an engineer and a PIPE-FLO user! That always gives me a kick and I enjoyed his company on the flight to London. 

When traveling in Europe, I try to take public transit whenever possible because it’s so easy to get around. But since my first stop was in the county of Kent outside of London, and I didn’t know if I could get there by public transit, I decided to rent a Fiat 500. Let me tell you about the Fiat 500…
A Fiat 500 has an engine smaller than most soda pop bottles. It is billed as a four-passenger car, but can comfortably fit two skinny super models, or one full-grown man. The next morning I got on the motorway equipped with a local GPS and started driving on the left side of the street, with a stick shift. 

It turns out my customer was in a business park out in the middle of the county, but with a rail station next to it! Later in the day I took the car back, filled it up with gas (wow their gas prices are high), and took the train into London for the next day’s appointments. London was easy to get around using the Underground, and I had an excellent visit with a prospective customer. 

That afternoon it was back to Heathrow to catch a flight to Dusseldorf Germany. The next day I took two trains and a bus to visit a prospective customer. I arrived at 11:00 and started off with my standard PIPE-FLO presentation. They had many questions; I always like it when that happens. After an hour they asked when I had to leave for my next appointment. I jokingly said I have all afternoon, and at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon they wrapped up their last question. That was the longest presentation I ever made, and in reality, it was more like a training course than a demo. That night I had a great meal and looked forward to a weekend in Germany. 

It’s not all glamor in international travel. On business, I always travel light, fitting everything for the trip into a single carry on. Using this approach, I can only take a week’s worth of cloths and on a multi week trip; I have to find a laundry. In the states, most hotels have a couple of coin-operated machines, but I have yet to see one in Europe.

So early Saturday morning, I went in search of a Laundromat in Dusseldorf. I did a Google search and got a list of Laundromats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, but nothing in Germany.  I then saw what appeared to me as a single, middle-age guy walking out of a local café by himself. I figured that he was not in a relationship and so he had to do his own laundry, right? He gave me directions, and after two hours, I had all my cloths washed, dried and folded, along with the knowledge of how to get the soap, where to insert the money, and the etiquette and practices of a German Laundromat.  

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped to get a sausage for lunch. I picked something that looked like a hot dog, and they gave me this 18-inch sausage in a three-inch bun. The only problem was where to put the mustard, but they gave me a dipping cup for mustard and I was right at home. 

On Sunday, I had all day to get to Rotterdam. Michael Blondin, our Chief Operating Officer was in Milan for a trade show and on Monday morning, he and I were meeting in Rotterdam with our local PIPE-FLO dealer. We both were traveling by train, and planned on meeting at the hotel in Rotterdam. When I got on the train in Dusseldorf the first person I saw was Michael. I sat down in my reserved seat, which happened to be right across from him.

They were doing track maintenance in Holland that Sunday so we needed to take three trains to get to Rotterdam. On our second train, we meet a young woman that was returning to her home in Rotterdam and had a great conversation. She talked about her job with the police department, along with her recent travels to the United States, Italy, and what her life is like in Holland. Before we knew it, we were at the central and were on our way.

When Michael and I made it to the hotel, we went to our rooms, dropped off our things, then immediately went exploring Rotterdam. The last time I was in Rotterdam was 1999, but now there was construction going on everywhere and the city was new and vibrant. We walked around the harbor and I was able to see the variety of merchant ships in port. Being a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy, I never get tired of seeing ships. We went through their maritime museum on the waterfront and had a great walk on a sunny spring day. 

The next morning we met with Hans Vogelesang of PumpSupport, our local PIPE-FLO dealer. We have been doing business together since the early 90s and over the years, Hans has become a great friend. We talked about our current business development efforts, gave him a sneak peak of the next release of PIPE-FLO, and talked about old times. He then asked if we had time for a quick lunch. With a 2:55 pm flight out of Amsterdam to London, I thought three hours would be more than enough time for a light lunch and a quick trip to the airport. 

When we got to the neighborhood restaurant, he ordered and they brought out an open face club sandwich, with turkey, cheese, and three fried eggs… so much for a light lunch. As we waited for lunch, I watched the minutes tick off and my two-hour buffer began melting away. After an hour, we finally left the restaurant and were on the way to the airport. Then all of a sudden the traffic came to a halt, and we sat there for 15 minutes. I got to the airport at 2:00, fifty minutes prior to my scheduled departure.  By the time I got to the front of the check-in line, they said the flight closed two minutes ago, and I would need to be re-ticketed for a later flight.
 
I went over to the British Air counter and they said that since the ticket was purchased from Orbits, they would need to issue the new ticket. With an hours and a half until the next flight to London I didn’t have the time so I handed them my credit card and purchased a new ticket. I went through customs and made it out to the gate before my original flight started boarding. I asked the people at the gate if I could get on my original flight since I still had a ticket for that flight as well. They said that since I had not checked in and was not on their manifest, I couldn’t get on. Damn!

I got on the next flight to London and we arrived 10 minutes early! That is unheard of when flying into Heathrow. I thought, I am home free and this may be my lucky day after all… I rushed off the plane, went to immigration and saw a long line waiting to get through. They only had three agents at the gates, and often times two of them had to go to their office to make phone calls regarding arriving passengers. After one hour and forty five minutes I made some new friends from Nigeria traveling to London for spring break, and finally got through customs.

I had to drop by the hotel that I had stayed in the previous week, because I left a jacket in the closet. Traveling on the London Underground is amazing. I typed my destination into my smart phone and I was presented with a map showing step-by-step instruction, when the trains left and when I would arrive at my final destination. All was well until I lost my ticket for the Underground. I had purchased an all location daily pass for seven pounds and it fell out of my pocket. In London you need a ticked not only to get on the train, but also to get off. I told the gate attended of my troubles and I must have looked in sad shape because he waived me through. 

Next I had to get the train to Hitchens at Kings Cross station. I needed to purchase a ticked (the ticket machines in England were harder to operate than the ticket machines in Germany), and then figure out what track to go to. As I got the ticked out of the machine, I heard my train to Hitchens would be departing in 1 minute. I made a quick dash to the platform with my carry on and computer back pack. With just three steps shy of the train the doors closed. I found out by looking up at the departure sign that they closed the doors two second early, and right on schedule the train pulled out of the station.

The next train to Hitchens would get me in after 9:00 pm, and I was giving a training class the next day. I was really down in the dumps after such challenging day. I made it to the next train, arrived at Hitchens, got into a taxi at the train station and had a wonderful chat with the cab driver. I gave him a larger tip than normal because he did a great job of cheering me up. I checked into the hotel and had a great night’s sleep. 

After the first day of class I went out to dinner with some of the attendees. We went out to an Indian restaurant for a curry dinner. The service was excellent, the food was great and my dinner companions were a fun group. It seems that one of my German dinner companions became a celebrity that night. He ordered the Vindaloo, apparently one of the hottest curry dishes available. He was warned by the waiter and when it came out he had a bite and asked if he could get some additional peppers to make it hotter.

The waiter came back in 5 minutes with a dish of tiny peppers (in the pepper world, the small the pepper the hotter they are, and based upon the size of these babies I was afraid that my German friend would auto ignite). He put ALL the peppers on his food and started eating without displaying any signs of distress. Two minutes later the manager came around, in five minutes the chef came out, followed by the restaurant owner, they all wanted to meet the man that could eat fire!

The next day I finished up the course, and then headed off to the train station for my final trip to Heathrow. After checking into my hotel, I was ready to try the Thai place down the road, but when I took my shoes off in the room, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere that night. 

The next morning I got on a big United jet homeward bound after 10 days on the road.  Before I went to sleep on the plane, I clicked my heels together on my traveling shoes said, “there is no place like home.”

To me traveling is a way to get to meet new and interesting people. First, the customers that have helped us stay in business and keep our business growing. Second, people (both customers and others) I meet along the way that can share their common experiences and grow in our understanding of each other. Best of all about traveling is the ability to sleep soundly on a long trans-Atlantic homeward flight.

Share your travel experiences or suggestions with me! Leave a comment below or send an email to blogger@eng-software dot com. Thanks for reading!

From ESCAPE to Premium

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes 42 seconds. Read Later

In my last post, I discussed the creation of PUMP-FLO and its transition from a DOS application to a Windows application, developed and first released as E.S.C.A.P.E. by the Aurora Pump Company. With the completion of E.S.C.A.P.E., it was time for us to release PUMP-FLO as our MS Windows pump selection program.

The major difference between PUMP-FLO and Aurora's E.S.C.A.P.E. at that time was that PUMP-FLO could select pumps from ANY supporting pump manufacturer’s catalog. E.S.C.A.P.E. could only select pumps from the Aurora product lines. In other words, PUMP-FLO could select any centrifugal pump provided the manufacturer had an electronic pump catalog for use with our program.

After a couple of months of development, we released PUMP-FLO for Windows version 1. Upon the release, we had one pump manufacturer onboard, Aurora (the Aurora catalog ran with both PUMP-FLO and ESCAPE.) Now it was time to get some more manufacturers onboard.

Once again I got out my list of pump manufacturers and sent them all a letter describing how they can use PUMP-FLO as their pump selection program simply by creating and adding an electronic pump catalog. Once again, we were overwhelmed with silence. Crickets.

Since we had firsthand experience with the Aurora sales group, we knew the value PUMP-FLO held for a pump sales team and we would not be stopped. So I decided to start calling the pump manufacturers on my list to tell them the story first hand.

After a couple of months I had over 90 pump manufacturers identified in North America, complete with their company address, markets served, along with their sales manager. I discovered that many of the manufacturers had multiple brands they sold their products under (Original Equipment Manufacturers or OEMs).

Once I got the pump market sorted out I decided it was time to go visit them and sell them on the idea of creating their company’s electronic pump catalog for use with PUMP-FLO. What was really disappointing is that we were offering to create the manufacturers’ pump catalogs for free, and we still didn't have any takers. All a manufacturer had to do was to supply us with their pump curves in paper form, we would create their catalog, and send it for their review and approval.

As an engineer I never had a business class, nor did I know how to sell, but now I was on a mission. I took my 10-pound laptop on the road with me and demonstrated the program to manufactures, pump distributors, to pump buyers at trade shows, in airport waiting rooms and even on a cross-country flight. Based on the positive response I knew that we had a winner, but we still had the problem of getting the manufacturers on board with their electronic pump catalogs.

After 18 months, PUMP-FLO still only had the Aurora catalog available for selection. Getting the manufacturers to commit was much harder than I originally thought. I then had a great idea, we would create mini-catalogs (25 pump curves of our customers choosing) for our PUMP-FLO customers for free. The PUMP-FLO customer would send us a copy of the manufacturer’s paper catalog pages they wanted, we would enter the data, and send them a disk back in the mail that could be used with PUMP-FLO. To make it even more valuable we would merge previous curves from the same manufacturer into the catalog so over time we would have a bigger catalog for the manufacturer.

We did this for about six months and in no time we had a collection of manufacturer’s catalogs. We then started sending out press releases announcing the availability of the each manufacturer’s catalogs. One of the manufacturers found out that we were distributing an electronic pump catalog for their products and had their New York lawyer send us a letter wanting to know how much money we were making so they would know how much to sue us for.

Needless to say we got our lawyer on the case and after spending a week in study he gave us a lawyer opinion. He said there was precedence in favor of what we were doing, and precedence favoring the manufacturer (just what you would expect from a lawyer). I then asked him what he would recommend and after 30 minutes of disclosure, precedence, and hemming and hawing he suggested we write a letter to the manufacturer "Asking for forgiveness and promising to sin no more." I spent the weekend writing a very contrite letter; it must have worked because they said they would drop the suit if we never sent out their pump data ever again.

Finally our luck changed and after two years of trying we finally got our second manufacturer to sign. I wish I could say that it was because of my excellent salesmanship. It turns out I was out of the office when Don Smiley of Weinman Pump called.

Since I was out, Carolyn Popp, (our President & Chief Technical Officer) answered the phone and had a nice talk with him. He said they were really interested in getting added to PUMP-FLO, but they didn't want their pumps listed next to their competitors. She said that was not how the program worked.

She explained that our mutual customers would buy PUMP-FLO from us, and get the Weinman electronic catalog from them. Don then asked how the customer got the electronic catalog. Carolyn explained that we would create their electronic catalog for them from their paper pump curves. Once we create the catalog they would review it, and once approved they would get a master catalog disk that they could freely copy and send out to their customers with PUMP-FLO. She went on to explain that since they sent out their catalog they would know everyone who had their electronic catalog.

The next day Don flew up from Conway, Arkansas and signed the agreement in person. Finally we had our second manufacturer committed. From then on I made sure that the pump manufacturer understood they were in the loop and their electronic pump catalog was their property to give to any PUMP-FLO customer they wished.

A couple of weeks later we got a call from Brian Tims of Paco Pump (then located in Oakland, California). Brian was calling from one of their pump distributor’s office and said he saw one of their pumps selected using PUMP-FLO. He wanted to know what we were doing.

Paco was one of the manufacturers that we had created the “free” customer requested catalogs and had many of their pumps already created. Fearing another unpleasant letter from their lawyer, I let them know we were not doing that anymore. Sensing the fear in my voice, he asked how the program worked. I gave him the discussion about how we worked with them to create their electronic catalog, and once reviewed and approved it was their property for them to distribute. He then asked how long it would take to get their catalog created and I confessed that we had previously created their entire pump catalog because of the initial response from our PUMP-FLO customers. Once again, swearing that we no longer send it out.

He then asked how he could get a copy of PUMP-FLO to all his pump distributors, so I told him it was available for purchase. To sweeten the deal, I mentioned if he bought enough copies of PUMP-FLO we would give him the Paco Electronic Pump Catalog that we created for no additional charge. He asked how many they would need to purchase (I assumed that 100 would be the maximum number we could ever possibly sell to pump company), so I said 50 (may as well go big, right?). He said, "OK, I'll send you a check for 50 and once we get the catalog reviewed and approved we'll send in a bigger order." I was elated!

After that we knew without a doubt, that PUMP-FLO was a winner. Re-doubling my sales efforts, I started visiting every pump manufacturer I could. With all the long plane flights, I decided to read some sales books. Every book suggested listening to your customers to find out how their sales and selection process worked, and ask about their current challenges. So I started listening, and began to learn how pump sales groups wanted to use our program in order to do their job better. This allowed me to focus on their needs and show them the existing PUMP-FLO features that best meet their requirements. This in turn, allowed me to determine what new features we should add in the future. Once I started listening and helping them streamline their internal workflow we started signing up pump manufacturers left and right.

In the mid-1990s, the Internet gained in popularity and wide use. Before you knew it, all anyone was talking about was the paradigm shift (remember that buzz word?) and how the Internet would “CHANGE THE WORLD FOREVER.” Before you knew it everyone I talked to, wanted to know when PUMP-FLO would work on the Internet. We then started examining what it would take to create a Web-based version of PUMP-FLO and based on the requests from the pump manufacturers we decided we needed to make the shift.

This time we partnered with Big Machines, an Internet startup based out of Silicon Valley. We started working together so PUMP-FLO could select the pump, and the Big Machines configuration program could help the pump sales person price the pump. After going to a short training course on developing Internet application we were once again on the bleeding edge of technology. After a few months we had PUMP-FLO running on the Web and started shifting pump manufacturers pump selectors to their own Websites. This allowed the manufacturer to send their customers to their company website and have online pump selection that looked like their own brand.

In early 2002, shortly after the dot com bust, we still had pump manufacturers and end users using the program to help them select and specify pumps for their needs. We had survived the bubble and even began to thrive in the next generation of the Internet, Web 2.0. We continued to develop the programs features both on the Windows and Web versions, and now we have more than 115 pump manufacturers using PUMP-FLO to select pumps for their customers. They are even using PUMP-FLO on their mobile devices now. Here are some interesting statistics about the success of the Web version of PUMP-FLO.

Since we started the PUMP-FLO.com website, we have over 243,700 registered users with an average of 2,000 new registered users per month. Every day, over 1,000 people use PUMP-FLO.com to select a pump for a pumping application.

I don't know if this is a paradigm shift, if pump manufacturers have frictionless commerce, or if we have changed forever the way people buy pumps. I don't think so, but I do know that PUMP-FLO is able to bring pump buyers and sellers together. Using PUMP-FLO, pump buyers are better able to understand how a particular pump will operate in their system. The pump sellers can now explain to the pump buyers why the choice they made was the best one for their application. After all isn't that what business is all about, listening to your customer, and giving them what they need to make their life easier?

Do you have any questions for me? I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. In addition, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks for reading!

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes 26 seconds. Read Later

The Importance of Product Testing

As mentioned in my September blog, Engineered Software will be celebrating 30 years in business in 2012. In that post I listed the core value we have followed to better meet our customer’s needs and expectations, specifically:

1. Create a sustainable company
2. Create product that can be used by a wide variety of people, not just engineers
3. Play well with others.

In this month’s blog I will be sharing with you how our software testing has evolved over the years.

When we started Engineered Software both Carolyn Popp and I (the two founding principles) saw the value of developing a testing program for our software. Our feeling was, if we released a program that had a calculation error, our customers might not trust our new company. In addition, if the customer had trouble entering the necessary data or lost data due to a problem with the program, we were not providing them with the value they expected. For the first version of PIPE-FLO, we developed a series of program features; the formulas the calculations were based on, along with a set of example calculations. These example calculations included a variety of edge cases designed to test the program source code.

I developed a series of test problems from text books, technical publications such as the Crane Technical Paper 410, along with developing a series of calculations performed using an electronic calculator (remember 1982 pre-dated Lotus 123 and Microsoft’s Multi-Plan). A set of calculations sheets were developed complete with the equations, references, all input values, along with intermediate and final calculated results. Prior to every program release, these examples were entered manually into PIPE-FLO and the results validated. Carolyn, a former IBM system engineer, was just as adamant on program testing and validating prior to program release.

Our third & fourth employees, Jaclyn and Kathleen Byron (we often called them J&K), both with mechanical and civil engineering degrees, were hired to improve our program testing, provide customer technical support, and assist in software development. Based on their customer interaction they were able to created test procedures to validate all engineering calculations along with the user interface. They also were responsible for automating the test procedures by developing test scripts for each program feature.

When one of the software developers finished a new PIPE-FLO feature, J&K created an automated test, and checked the results. Any problems with the new feature were brought to the attention of the programmer and resolved. Once we had a PIPE-FLO release candidate, we would perform all automated tests again to validate the software results prior to release. The release testing took approximately 2 – 4 weeks to complete, allowing the correction of last minute program bugs, along with a review of the test results.

As our company grew, we added more programmers and engineers to our development team. In 2006 we decided it was time to update our software development and testing practices by implementing the Agile Software development process.

The major impact was to document the proposed program features and so everyone knows how the feature works. The process starts by engineers creating “stories” for each feature describing how customers used the feature. The application developers would write the program code to meet the requirements listed in the “story”, and the developers in test would develop the testing needed to ensure PIPE-FLO meets the “story” requirements.

Testing is now broken down into unit stages:

• Unit Testing
• Integration Testing

To demonstrate I’ll use an example for calculating the fluid Reynolds number. First engineering first creates a “story” defining the Reynolds number calculation, the data that must be supplied, and a variety of examples with the calculated results.

The application developers create a function for calculating the Reynolds number. The new function is placed in the function library used by all developers that need to calculate the fluid Reynolds number. In addition the developer creates a “unit test” based on the example calculations supplied by engineering in the “story.” The unit test is then placed in the unit test library that is run every time the program is compiled by any developer.

Now let’s say the developer creating the orifice sizing feature needs to calculate the fluid Reynolds number of the orifice. The software developer will use the previously defined Reynolds number function. If the function needs to be modified for the orifice sizing calculations, (say using the orifice diameter instead of the pipe diameter) then the Reynolds number function in the library may be modified by the developer writing the orifice feature. Once a developer compiles the program on their local computer the Reynolds number unit test will be performed to insure nothing was changed that would give bad Reynolds number results for either the pipeline or orifice Reynolds number calculation. If the test fails the developer knows immediately there is a problem in the Reynolds number function and makes the necessary correction.

Once the developer has completed the orifice sizing feature on their computer they check in their code to a central build server. The build server is where all programs are compiled for release. Once the code is checked in on the build server all unit tests are performed on the code, if any problems occur the developer is notified immediately. The build server performs all unit tests each time any one of the application programmers check in their source code.

Integrated Tests are developed by a separate group of programmers that specialize in software testing. The developers in test create the integrated tests to ensure the program’s higher level features work as called out in the “story.” The majority of these tests are developed to test PIPE-FLO’s user interface.

For example in PIPE-FLO the pipeline graph window shows the fluid Reynolds number over a range of flow rates. The developers in test will create an integrated test to check that the graph window is acting as defined in the story. For example the integrated test may check to see that the Reynolds numbers are graphed and displayed and the user also has the ability to change the color.

In the past the integrated testing was conducted when the feature was initially added to the program, and at the completion of the program prior to program release. The time difference between initially adding the feature releasing the program could be measured in months. During that time span a developer may make a change in a new feature that has an effect on a previously tested feature.

With our new automated testing once an integrated test is written to test a feature it is added to the test suite on the testing server. Every night the test server performs all automated tests.

In the evening, the test server takes that day’s program from the build server and loads it to the test server. The test server loads the current program onto multiple computers on the test farm. The test server then assigns the various integrated test to each computer and keeps track of the results. Currently there are about 10 computers in our testing farm and it takes approximately 6 hours to perform the test and review the results.

The next morning each member of the development team can check to see if the code they wrote yesterday has an adverse effect of the program development. If any of the tests fail the developer will be notified and can make the necessary changes that day.

This testing has paid off for both Engineered Software and our customers. In the last two versions of PIPE-FLO we have only had to issue one maintenance release to correct problems associated with the program. A more reliable program means less stress for such important engineering choices, and our aim is to make our customer’s job easier.

I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks for reading!

Thirty Years of Providing a Clear Picture

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes 43 seconds. Read Later

I always like to break a process, list, or ideas down into the fewest number of items, three is ideal. I can easily remember three items, but anything more and I need to write it down.

Creating a list is much more difficult that remembering a short list:

• First you must find paper and pencil to create the list.


• Second you must remember where you put the list.

• Third you must refer to your list when making your points.


• Forth well I can’t seem to remember now, but it was important.

You also must think of your intended audience that is receiving your message. For your ideas to be meaningful, they must be remembered. When I listen, by the time someone is on the second point my mind starts wandering. After their forth idea, I find myself wondering where I put my list of items I needed to pick up after work.

The other day I was in a sales and marketing meeting and mentioned that Engineered Software’s 30-year anniversary is April 3^rd 2012. I then asked the group why they thought we were able to make it as a company to this major milestone. They started listing a variety of items, but Dennis Worrell, our sales manager said we need to keep the list to no more than three items so people will remember.

After the intro you probably though that I came up with the idea myself, that’s why I always like to have smart people on my team to help make us look good.

So here is the list of things that we have been doing for the last thirty years to make our company grow:

1. Created a sustainable company


2. Created products that can be used by a wide variety of people, not just for engineers


3. Play well with others

I’ll be expanding on the items in this blog, and will be covering highlights and providing additional details during our upcoming 30th anniversary year.

Create a sustainable company

From the beginning, our goal was to create a company that can grow to best meet the needs of our customers. We listen to our customers and they said they wanted products that are easy to use, reliable, and helped them better understand how their systems worked.

• Make the programs easier to use. We were an early adopter of Microsoft^® Windows^® with our 1989 release of PUMP-FLO™. It ran using the Windows 1 operating environment.


• We have always had a written test plan for our software products. This ensures we have documented acceptance criteria, and the completed software worked as designed.


• In 1987, we got our first request for product training. Over the years, our customers have helped us progress our training offerings to more than just software. Now we have courses on piping system basics, pump operation and maintenance, and improving system profitability.

Created products that are not just for engineers

I am an engineer and couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. When we started the company, our goal was to provide software tools for engineers. Our first PIPE-FLO^® customers were EPC firms (Engineering, Procurement and Construction).

After a short time, we started selling to owners and operators of piping systems as well. They liked how PIPE-FLO provides them with a clear picture of how their systems were operating, and we liked how they helped us expand our business. Ease of use was high on their list so we strove to make our programs more meaningful to these customers. PIPE-FLO is used to troubleshoot maintenance problems, help operations determine how their plant operates under off-normal conditions, and save the utilities group on energy costs.

In the late 1980s we released PUMP-FLO, our centrifugal pump selection and evaluation program.

Three months after releasing the program, a major pump manufacturer purchased copies for every one of their sales staff. It seems they were using PUMP-FLO to help our PIPE-FLO customers select the best pump for their applications. This leads us to the third key to success, “Play well with others.”

Play well with others

One thing we discovered in the first 30 years of business is that it takes a diverse group of people to run any business. We always strive to learn more about our customer’s workflow and businesses processes. As a result, we discovered that if we could play well with others we were able to offer greater value. As mom always said if you want to play, you need to communicate. Here are a few pioneering examples of how we make our applications play well with others:

• One of the early communication features of Microsoft® Windows was Dynamic Data Exchange or DDE. We incorporated DDE into PUMP-FLO and published our user codes so others could gain access to input data and program results. This allows pump manufacturers to develop and integrate configuration and pricing programs, dimension drawing programs, and document management program seamlessly with our PUMP-FLO.


• Many of our PIPE-FLO customers are hard-core spreadsheet users and asked if PIPE-FLO can send results to their Excel® spreadsheets. We did one better, we made it so PIPE-FLO can provide two-way communications with Excel. Now our customers are writing customized datasheets under Excel and automatically importing design data directly from PIPE-FLO. Others are writing spreadsheets that help them optimize their initial system design.

By developing an easy to use tool that meets the needs of many different groups and allowing our products to play well with others, we have been able to grow and prosper for 30 years.

I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks for reading!

Professional Engineer Designation

GUEST POST by Greg Hora, PE

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 7 seconds. Read Later

"I never knew you wanted to be a gym teacher!" was the response I received from one of my friends after I told them I passed the PE exam. "Well, not exactly…" was my response.

My name is Greg Hora and I’m a Professional Engineer (PE). Many of you reading this blog are yourselves engineers and PE’s. Today, I'd like to write about the PE designation; what it means, why you might want to become one, and what it takes to sit for the exam.

Ok, so what is a PE?

A PE is an engineer who has met their state’s requirements on engineering and is designated as a person who is skilled in the art of engineering. The PE designation was created in order to protect the safety and welfare of the people who will be affected by your work. By becoming a PE, you are in effect stating that you are skilled enough to perform engineering work for the public and the public can be assured that you know what you’re talking about. After obtaining this title you become legally liable for any engineering work you certify as a PE.

Interestingly, most states will typically give you the generic title of "Professional Engineer" and not "Mechanical Professional Engineer" or “Civil Professional Engineer”. I am a mechanical engineer by trade and I have the title of Professional Engineer. Now, does this entitle me to perform electrical or civil engineering work since I have my PE? Not likely… While the title is generic I’m bound by my state's regulations (and common sense) to only perform engineering work within the areas that I'm competent in.

You might be asking yourself...

"I'm an engineer performing engineering duties but I'm not a PE, what gives?" Each state’s regulations will describe this situation a little differently but for the most part there will typically be a section in the rules that exempt people from having to be a PE as long as they are working as an employee under a registered engineer and that their work does not include any responsible position of design or supervision.

As I just pointed out, you are allowed to perform engineering duties without having your PE as long as you’re working under a PE or are not in a responsible/supervisor role. Now, what if you want to move up the corporate ladder into some senior positions? This is where obtaining your PE becomes critical. Some organizations might be structured to allow you to have more responsibility without having your PE, but you’re going to be hitting that glass ceiling at some point without it, Having your PE will also allow you to negotiate better for a raise at your current position.

If you ever wanted to start your own engineering firm, you need to have your PE. Only a PE can stamp and certify engineering drawings or plans submitted to the public.

Not only does having your PE allow you to progress through the ranks at your current company, but it will be an asset if you ever decide to change companies. Imagine a hiring manager looking over a stack of resumes. It comes down to you and one other applicant. Both of you have the required skills and experience, but you have your PE. Who do you think will get the call to interview first?

Pursuing your own PE

If you're interested in pursuing your PE there are a few requirements you'll need to meet. An application to your state board is required before you can sit for the exam. You’ll need to meet education, experience, and approval letter requirements.

For your application to be accepted, you must meet the minimum engineering work experience requirements (measured in years). The education and experience requirements are related to each other and each state will have their own unique combinations of the two. An engineering technology degree will typically require a longer period of engineering experience than a bachelor’s degree. The required experience typically decreases as you go up the degree chain to masters and doctoral, but again this will vary from state to state.

A good place to find your state's licensing board is to look at the PE exam administrator National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying® (NCEES). Their website is at www.ncees.org. Another variable that can affect the required length of experience is whether or not you passed the FE exam after you obtained your degree (this exam used to be called the EIT - there is no difference between the two). You will generally need less engineering experience when that experience time is obtained while you have your FE. One combination of experience and degree that works for all states is four years of experience (while you have your FE) and a bachelor’s degree.

In addition to the engineering experience, you will need to include some letters of recommendation with your application. Again, the requirements from state to state will vary but you will typically need letters from people who are already PEs and who have firsthand experience with your work.

After all of your material is sent into the state board, and your application is approved, all that is left is for you to pass the PE exam. You'll take the exam in whatever discipline you applied for. The exam is multiple choice format and given over a single eight hour day with a break for lunch. The exam is open book meaning you can bring all of your reference books in for help.

So there you go!

Obtaining your PE is a rewarding experience. It will open up avenues in your career that are not otherwise available and lead you to more challenging experiences. I wish you all the best in your journey to become a PE!

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If you would like to read more from Greg Hora or take advantage of some of the resources he offers, check out his website and blog: www.peprepme.com/

Let us know what you think. Leave a comment or send us and email, we read them all! blogger@eng-software.com. No need to login to leave a comment, but we do ask you keep it clean and work appropriate.

The Taco Bell Drive-Thru and Pumping System Assessments

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 45 seconds. Read Later

Admiral H.G. Rickover 1900 - 1986

When I was a Lieutenant (jg) in the US Navy nuclear power program in the 1970’s there was only one admiral that mattered, that was Admiral H.G. Rickover. Some call him the father of the nuclear navy, but I thought of him as more of an all-seeing, all-knowing god, than a father. At that time, he had been the director of Naval Reactors for over 25 years and he knew everything that was happening on each one of his nuclear powered vessels. Every month the Admiral would send out a variety of magazine articles designed to make us well rounded naval officers. On the USS Jack (SSN 605) we kept the Admiral’s required reading in the officer’s head (bathroom for you non nautical types) so we could read while sitting. The Admiral’s suggested articles always provided interesting reading. I distinctly remember one article about the animal husbandry of cows and how semen is extracted from a 2,200 pound bull. I also recall an article about the science of honey. The Admiral’s topics would vary widely, along with the ever present transcripts of his annual testimony given to the US House and Senate on the state of the Nuclear Navy.

So last week I read an interesting article that I would like to share with you. You don’t have to read it in the head because I have provided a link. (Unless your Wi-Fi reaches the restroom and you happen to have a water-proof device.) In the May 5th, 2011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, I was fascinated by the article "Taco Bell and the Golden Age of Drive-Thru." It talked about how the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant - They don’t refer to it as fast food), has some of the most advanced operational thinking. Their aim is to enable their customers to place an order, have it filled accurately (over 93% of the time), pay and then be on their way with a hot meal in less than 164 seconds.

It turns out it hasn’t always been that way. In the 1990’s, when the drive-thru revenue only represented 50% of the stores business, order accuracy was a joke, the waits for food were painfully long, and it was often served cold. That is when management realized that they needed to get the drive thru right or they were going to miss out on millions in profit.

The folks at Taco Bell looked at every step of the process from how the order was taken and paid for, how the kitchen received and tracked the orders, the layout of the kitchen, how the “Food Champions” prepared each menu item, along with the menu items available. After years of hard work, performing a cost benefits analysis and time motion studies of every phase of the process, the industry made some serious changes. The QSR industry is now an example of American ingenuity and how a business can make quality products that meet the needs and expectations of their customers.

Drive-thru timer and efficiency clock.
Image Courtesy Techknow Inc.
gotechknow.com

Today a typical Taco Bell has a menu of over 400 menu items, while most restaurants work three shifts a day. Today everything is covered in great detail, when a new employee is hired they must successfully complete training on that position. As a “Service Champion” you learn there is only one way to greet a customer: “Hi, how are you today?” followed by “You may order when you’re ready.” Studies found that not only does this put customer first, it eliminates any stress they may be experiencing in their car (such as a 3 year old having a meltdown in the back seat). Each “Food Champion” is taught the correct way to make each item on the menu, along with the correct way to wrap tacos and burritos. This is done in order to make it easier for the customer to eat their item while minimizing the number of food wrappers a Taco Bell store must stock. It appears they have evaluated every detail to streamline the process and minimize costs. It is especially important because now in the Quick Serve Restaurant industry, over 70% of the revenue comes through the drive thru window.

Now how does this tie into the value of conducting Pumped System Assessments? I would consider the efficiency of the average pumped system today is where the fast food industry was in the 1990’s. These pumped systems are able to manufacturer products that the consumers want, but often there are too many unscheduled plant outages. Other outages and process inefficiencies occur while performing maintenance on certain items of equipment dominating the maintenance expenses, while training plant personnel, while maintaining a safe plant, while not causing an environmental problem. Not to mention the constant quest to increase plant reliability so the plant can produce more products, while reducing operating cost, maintenance cost and capitol costs.

The US Department of Energy has been the driving force behind the pumped system assessment standard. They hired a group of pump system consultants to conduct assessments at industrial plants in order to demonstrate ways of minimizing the operating costs for pumped systems. Much of what the DOE has learned while conducting these assessments has found its way into the official ASME Pump System Assessment Standard.

Fluid Fundamentals (an Engineered Software Business Unit) has developed our Pumped System Assessment and Optimization training class to show the piping and pumping system industry how to implement the ASME standard. The primary focus of the class is to show people how to determine the current annual operating cost of a pumped system and identify each cost in a Energy Cost Balance Sheet. With the current operating cost known, the plant can determine ways to improve the system operation to reduce the various cost items identified in the Energy Cost Balance Sheet. The final step is to document each assessment and determine the potential savings. Companies that have performed assessments have not only reduced their operating costs, but also discovered they can reduce their maintenance cost and increase the reliability of their pumped system.

The objective of the pumped system assessment program is to foster continued improvement with the plant. This is accomplished by evaluating each step of the process, looking for ways to minimize energy consumption, running the process more efficiently, and running the equipment around its best efficiency point. Taco Bell didn’t achieve their 164 second per order time, or 95% accuracy rate over night; it took hard work and a goal of achieving continued improvements to the process.

Thanks to all the efforts put into their process assessment and their inspiring goal of total efficiency, I now find myself thinking about ways to improve pumped system efficiency every time I order a Crunchwrap Supreme and diet soda at my local Taco Bell.

I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks!