AQ: Floor programmer and office programmer
The biggest differences between the floor programmer and the office programmer is often a piece of paper (knowledge and experience do not replace a piece of paper in the mind of HR person that has no understanding of the position they are seeking to fill) and that the floor programmer must produce a working machine. Also many an excellent programmer will never put up with the office politics seen in many companies. To appear right for me is worthless when being right is the goal. In a physical world it can be shown that a program is right or wrong because the machine works or does not. In the theory driven world of the office that can not happen, so appearing correct as well as being correct is necessary.
If you are the best programmer in your company or the worse. If you are the worse one then maybe you are correct. But if you are the best then please take a close look at the worse programmer’s work and tell us if there is not a need for some improvement.
I have cursed out more than one officer programmer for missing logic which on the floor is easy to see is necessary. The office programmer was more than once, myself. Making logic to control machine in theory is far more difficult a task than modifying that logic on a real running machine. Maybe your imagination and intelligence can create a theoretical image that matches the physical one.
Many office programmers are not up to that level. They lack the intelligence, imagination, experience or time to take an offline program that can be loaded and run a machine without help. But no fear, most start-up techs cannot debug a machine after the build is complete and remove all issues that will surface when the machine enters a customer’s plant and full production.
A good program will grow as time passes. To fill in the gaps in the software, to change the design from what design intended to what production requires and to cover the design changes as product models evolve. Static is not the floor condition of a good company, products and machines evolve and grow. More reliable, durable, quicker tool changes or device swaps, lower cycle times or more part types. There are examples of logic once written it never changes but that is not the whole of the world just one part of it.
