Employer told me that I don't require CAD to make drawings.

[u/raptor464]

I have been with my employer for a little less than a year and when I asked about installing a CAD program on my computer to make production drawings, I was told that the company doesn't require CAD to make drawings and our corporate office won't pay for it. For reference my employer rebuilds and reconditions electrical, mechanical and electromechanical industrial equipment such as pumps, electric motors, gearboxes, blowers, circuit breakers, etc. We have four regional division offices and a corporate office. At all of my previous employers we had CAD software to make production drawings. I have over 10 years using SolidWorks.

When I asked how I was expected to make drawings I was told to use either a pencil and paper or draw in Microsoft Word using inserted shapes. Currently I am making at least a couple of drawings a week based on job demand. If I was to make the drawings in CAD software it would take me half the time it currently takes me to make a hand sketch or draw something up in Microsoft Word.

The company did have a CAD program in the past but fired the previous engineer and got rid of the software license because too many costly mistakes happened.

I'm thinking about writing up a business case in PowerPoint to show the pros and cons of implementing a CAD program and to provide the options. I'm thinking about surveying the competitive landscape to see what others are using. Part of my job responsibilities is to maintain quality control and I think a CAD program would be a great place to start to improve quality.

What should I do?

Update: I'm starting to look for a new job. I don't think that it's that they don't want to pay for CAD, although that might be part of it, I really think they don't want me using it because it puts the liability on the company if something isn't quite right. That's why they fired they guy before me, because he made too many mistakes with CAD.

[u/theshizzler]

I'll just pop it right next to my password.