[EricH]

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

In industry, building without a drawing is extremely rare. And engineers who do their own building are almost as rare. This is because close to 95% of engineers would simply turn the part they need over to manufacturing. (The other 5% are likely classed as engineering technicians.)

So the normal process is to design, then build and refine the design.

We just had this discussion in one of my senior-level college classes today actually. Apparently, back in the 80s, at least one company designed by fabrication--they focused entirely on ease of manufacture. This cost them a lot of business because once built, the product could not be serviced easily. Fabrication drove their design process, and this damaged the company. They have since refocused to designing with all the other factors (and believe me, there are a LOT of other factors!) in mind, and are producing better products.

If I were your team, I would go to a local but large engineering/manufacturing company, and have them spend a day there shadowing the engineers and possibly the fabricators and talking to them. I think it would be an eye-opening experience for the team leadership. Sometimes, it's not all about the fun.