Quality, Quality, Quality
Fenland is 100% correct. I have a son who has a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering. I am pleased to say that as part of the course, he had to get his hands dirty. He has moved up the management chain, but still can be found on the shop floor when thing go wrong with the plant. Trying to design out the problem and giving a hand to put it back together in an effort to understand the problems the fitters have to face.
A few years ago he was put on a plane to America to look at a plant run by his parent company. He came back very depressed at the “I am a manager, you will do what I say” instead of listening to what the problem really is and the lack of quality control.
Here in the UK we still are well behind in quality control. One reason is the lack of good engineers and management that just will not listen to ways of improving a product, due to the cost in the short term.
Out of 30 students that started on his mechanical engineering course, only 7 graduated at the end of the 4 years. Alas engineering is not as attractive in the take home pay stakes as other occupations, but it can be very rewarding when you do get it right and you can say “I did that.”
His hero is James Dyson, just look at how he revolutionized the vacuum cleaner.