Is it just me?....installation speed worries

[Phoenix]

Just wondered if anyone else gets those days (quite regulaly in my case). where it seems the clock speeds up, you never seem to get anywhere near what you planned done, and at the end of the day you look back, a little embarassed and think "I can't belive that took me all day"

I am never sure whether I am slow, **** at estimating how long it will take, or a bit of both.

Other times, look at the completed job and think.... "that wasn't bad, time-wise"

I have never been pulled up by the firm on how long something took, but am always concerned it might happen, becuase *I* think I took too long.

Anyone else the same? Is it just an age thing, does it concern less as you get older?, lol

Can't be the only one?

 

[Rob.]

If you notice time flying by like that, you're working at your brains full capability. 

If you're not being moaned at for being slow, you're doing fine. 

If you are, the only way to speed up is to be more efficient with how you're doing the work. 

 

[kerching]

Being efficient takes a lot of time to,get right......younusually get it right just about retirement time

thing at least two steps ahead

never go back to,the van empty handed......it's all got to go back eventually

if there is part of the job younare not looking forward to....do,it FIRST if you can and get it out of the way

try do do the dirty ****ty jobs.....box cutting etc either all at once OR last job, nowt worse than working covered in All day

or get an apprentice  :innocent

 

[pewter]

I know exactly what you mean Phoenix.

Sometimes everything goes better then planned ..... i finish early, get paid and make a profit.

Sometimes half the day is gone before i can start what i planned.

Tidying up bad work done by others often takes up my time.

 

[Evans Electric]

As Rob said , if no one is complaining that you are taking too long ,  ( assume you are employed)  then you are probably doing OK. 

I'm sure none of us get it right all the time .

I've overestimated jobs sometimes , thinking that bit will take us forever only to find that we've breezed through "that bit"    and something that should have been simple has taken ages .  

I've met quite a few over- optomistic sparks  ,  you know the ones ...." yeah  do that in 10 mins , no probs "     Used to wonder as a young sparks , how can they be so quick ...then you find out , they're not , its all bullshine but sounds good.    And it was those winkers that the gaffer always thought were great .

No good commenting personally because I'm semi-retired now,  been at it since 3/4" conduit , 7/.029 &  Pyro   and don't give a stuff anymore how long anything takes .  I'm as fast as my knackered knees will allow .     What I do tend to do is spend more time organising everything I need , order stuff with the wholesaler a week in front and doing things like Kerch says ...if going to the van , take that with you as you don't need it anymore .  Lets face it , you think  "Ah its all finished now "   Then another hour carting everything off the job.  

 

[phil d]

As long as the job gets done and nobody is complaining don't worry, me and my mate went on a job just before Christmas, we'd been there on and off for a few weeks and we had a few bits left to finish. We thought we'd go back the following day, fit the last camera, a couple of outside lights and be away early, by the time we'd got set up, then had the client asking us to look at a couple of other jobs, then help with an emergency that cropped up, it was mid afternoon. We left about tea time and still had a light to swap, someday,s  you seem to achieve the impossible, other days you achieve bugger all. that's just life! 

 

[Tony S]

OK, I’ve never been a contracting electrician so I can only speak as an employee. Meeting deadlines for plant commissioning/alteration is a nightmare, you give an estimated completion date. At best it’s a wild arsed guess (WAG).

The first major project I got involved in was a will it/won’t it work experiment, it developed in to a farce. After a week of bodging things we finally got going. The less said about me sat astride a gas burner with a cigarette lighter the better.

Things take as long as they take.

 

[rapparee]

OK, I’ve never been a contracting electrician so I can only speak as an employee. Meeting deadlines for plant commissioning/alteration is a nightmare, you give an estimated completion date. At best it’s a wild arsed guess (WAG).

The first major project I got involved in was a will it/won’t it work experiment, it developed in to a farce. After a week of bodging things we finally got going. The less said about me sat astride a gas burner with a cigarette lighter the better.

Things take as long as they take.

But you're from a production background like me. You should be well used to production managers standing there saying how long is it going to be. A production supervisor asked me the other day how long it was going to take to fix a machine, I told him a few hours. This answer wasn't enough and he tried to guilt me by saying that some operators would miss out on overtime if I didn't fix it faster. I just shrugged and said do what you have to do.

 

[Andy™]

i would have told him to start helping to fix the problem or go away

 

[rapparee]

i would have told him to start helping to fix the problem or go away

He's a glorified forklift driver. The fitters have a great laugh at him. He can't even fill gas into a forklift. I also remember a different manager in our place who was standing with a tec screw trying to push it into a piece of 2" box section. The sweat was pouring off him and he asked if I had a special tool to make these screws work. I said yeah a drill laughing at him.

 

[Tony S]

But you're from a production background like me. You should be well used to production managers standing there saying how long is it going to be. A production supervisor asked me the other day how long it was going to take to fix a machine, I told him a few hours. This answer wasn't enough and he tried to guilt me by saying that some operators would miss out on overtime if I didn't fix it faster. I just shrugged and said do what you have to do.

And that is why maintenance and installation are like chalk and cheese. They are two totally different beasts but at times you have to swap hats.

I’ll be honest, I wish I could get back in to the thick of the fighting.

I HATE RETIREMENT!

 

[rapparee]

I HATE RETIREMENT!

 I was replacing one of these this afternoon. It was off one of our robots. Apparently we're getting 6 axis ABB robots later on in the year.

 

[phil d]

Managers and the like are a pain, they've no understanding of the job, same as designers really, and architects, I don't really like any of them. Well a few years back we were on this big job in the Bullring at Birmingham, installing all this fancy kit that had been designed by this young architect, she thought she was gods gift and boy did she let everyone know it! A lot of the design was hideous and we all knew it would look awful, but she didn't care, she was the expert! It was all fitted and on the day of the opening, which was to be done by the mayor of Birmingham, things started to unravel, I just sat back and watched. The fancy light units she'd designed looked hideous, you could see the outline of the fluorescent tubes when they were lit, then the big one, the computers wouldn't run! The towers were about 7 or 8 meters from the keyboards and the volt drop was too much, I sat and laughed, the customer went into panic mode, my boss was distinctly unhappy and the architect was almost in tears. All I kept saying was "well if people who tried to design things talked to people who actually knew about things these situations wouldn't arise"

Anyway about 10 minutes before the Mayor arrived I disappeared for a "smoke" in reality I was doing something else, the Mayor arrives, they have the opening ceremony and she's showing him the new "Flagship" store, he spots the computers and presses a button, she looks on nervously, it works!

I'm standing at the back saying nothing, just smiling, the Mayor leaves and she comes over to me and asks what just happened, I drop a few gel crimps in her hand, "you may think you know what you're doing love, but I really know what I'm doing" I turned around and walked away. I knew from the outset it wouldn't work using the cable she'd specified, it was too thin for the length of run, so I had told the lads to run a spare in as well, when I had disappeared for my "*** break" I was actually doubling up the cores with the gel crimps! I'd like to think she learned something that day, I wonder?

 

[Badger]

Fair play to you phil d nice to see someone who actually uses their brain and not their computer to plan something