Re: WHAT did you say? (WAS: What is a SME?)

[George Mena <George -dot- Mena -at- ESSTECH -dot- COM>]

Hi folks :D

To clarify for everyone:

SME = Subject Matter Expert.  Most of us already know this -- or SHOULD
already know it.

BUT (!)

ASME = American Society of *Mechanical* Engineers, *NOT* manufacturing
engineers!

If you wind up spending any time as a technical writer in a
manufacturing environment (any company that has any kind of an assembly
line qualifies as a manufacturing environment), you'll soon realize that
mechanical engineers typically work as manufacturing and test engineers
in those companies.  Their primary responsibilities will TYPICALLY
include the following:

* Design, test and manufacture new products (typically not financial or
software products).

* Design, specification and test of new components, consumable items
(such as adhesives, gaskets, lubricants and seals),  safety practices,
test fixtures, test methodologies, test systems (including
computer-controlled test systems) and tools used on the new/existing
product assembly line.

* Resolve product engineering issues on returned parts and make final
disposition recommendations on failed parts.

* Design, specify and test proposed modifications to new and existing
parts as necessary for increased reliability in the field.

I'm posting this today because I felt I saw FAR too much misinformation
and inaccurate information on the current "What is an SME?" thread.
Frankly, seeing this much misinformation on this list IN PARTICULAR
really worries me:  it's as if some people who've been in the business
awhile *AND* some people who are new to TW -- whether fresh out of
school or making a career transition -- have somehow wound up being
shortchanged in their re-education as newly-minted technical writers.

The need for tech writers to acquire Web page creation skills and online
documentation skills are becoming new requirements for their skills
sets, even though that's .  Nonetheless, I truly fear that the continued
movement of domestic manufacturing jobs to offshore locations such as
China, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan may well deprive the relatively new
tech writer of the opportunity to work in the true birthplace of
technical writing: the assembly line.

It's on the assembly line that the following questions are answered:

* How does this work? (whatever "this" is)

* Why doesn't it work the way it's supposed to?

* When I did this instead of that, it worked better.  Could you please
check that for me to verify my results?

I feel discussing fonts, information mapping and document design pale in
their relevance when comparing them to educating tech writers.
Specifically, I feel a technical writer who's never had to document
manufacturing and test processes has been shortchanged.   I hope this is
an issue that gets addressed and resolved in both junior college- and
university-level technical communications certificate and degree
programs -- and soon! :D

George Mena

> -----Original Message-----
        [George Mena]  snip

        Society of Manufacturing Engineers, I think.

> ----------
> From:    [George Mena]  snip
> Sent:   Monday, September 21, 1998 9:48 PM
> To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:        What is a SME?
>
> What does SME mean?
>
        [George Mena]  snip


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