Adding Value by Seeing Red in the Shop

About 2/3 of the of the panel drawings that we receive here at AEC have been produced by the customer. And despite their best efforts and intent, these drawings often contain errors. Sometimes the errors are minor, but other times they are more significant and require re-design in order for the panel to perform its required function.

Most of AEC’s panel technicians are UL-508 certified and pride themselves on their attention to detail. Something that Shop Foreman, Brandon Morissette, emphasizes with all technicians is to understand the circuit, and not just blindly follow the schematics. This philosophy enables AEC to spot errors and propose solutions to the design engineer, keeping fabrication timeline moving smoothly and preventing costly errors that may only be discovered later during acceptance testing.

According to Gemini, the practice of using red ink on shop drawings, commonly known as “redlining,” originates from the need for a high-visibility, standardized, and manual method to indicate changes, corrections, or additions on technical drawings. The practice is rooted in the broader history of “rubrication”—a medieval and ancient technique where red ink was used to highlight essential text, headings, or important notations on documents.

In our case, these red-inked, “as-built” notations are later used to create a finalized set of plans. Long time shop foreman Harry Palmer (retired) loved his red pencil so much that he marked it with green tape. I can still hear him hollering from the Shop, “Who the f*** took my f***ing pencil!” Of course it was probably Brandon, just messing with him.

If you are looking for a company that “designs panels like a panel-builder and builds panels like an engineer” please give us a call. We would love to work with you on your next project.