It is not likely there will ever be no drawings but it is an ideal to aim for. Take a metal fabrication for example, the traditional approach to positioning a metal component in the middle of a metal sheet would be a drawing with dimensions that the fabricator would read, then measure out positions on the sheet, mark the location and then position the part. Each step from creating the drawing to positioning the part takes time and has potential for error (I have seen fabricators even mark a line and position the part on the wrong side of it) If the component had tabs that located in slots on the metal sheet then there would be no need for a drawing with dimensions, just a basic work instruction. This won't work every time but it is something to aim for. I appreciate the main point of your quote was more that as engineers our output is information, not parts. I guess my response is really saying, consider including that information in the part.
We're dragging this thread a bit off topic, so I'll try to keep future responses minimal, but, while I see your point, I don't agree with the application. You would still need a drawing, even if for nothing other than as a legal document in case there's a dispute over accepting/rejecting a part. Probably for incoming inspection as well, unless you have a jig of some sort.
We have three types of design: Cheap, Fast and Good. The customer can choose from any two of them; If it's cheap and fast, it won't be good. If it's good and cheap, it won't be fast, and if it's fast and good, it won't be cheap...
The optimist says: The cup is half full The pessimist says: The cup is half empty The engineer says: Given a safety factor of 1.5, the cup is 25% larger than it needs to be.
There are four engineers driving down the highway; A mechanical engineer, a electrical engineer, a chemical engineer and a software engineer. Suddenly, the car breaks down and stops at the side of the road. The mechanical engineer voices their opinion that it's probably a seized flywheel bearing, the electrical engineer states that it's probably a faulty alternator, and the chemical engineer thinks that it's more than likely there is some water contamination in the fuel. The software engineer says that everybody should get out and get back in again.
