Re: Management System related to Piping Design

On Dec 21, 2005, at 6:46 AM, tomcruz55 wrote:

> management system is in place related to anything that has something
> to do with engineering works and doing quality work.

> My assumption is that people … are also following certain
> policy/procedure governing
> their work

> In addition, these very same people is familiar with the working of
> not only the applicable Code …

> my assupmtion right? Piping drawings are normally a controlled
> documents.

   Your underlying assumption, that the management system in fact works, is hazy. Some work, some don't. Some address actual problems, others are conveniences to allow placing blame. Some are definitive, others are too vague to be useful. My personal experience is that systems which rely on procedural controls all have a fatal flaw: procedural controls are predictive; they assume that eventualities have all been foreseen--that the future is known.

There are two other assumptions inherent in any written procedure: 1. that everyone concerned understands both the procedure and the underlying process 2. that the procedure won't be ignored in favor of personal considerations.

Where 'management systems' fail, and you can cite anything from the destruction of the _Sultana_ in 1865 (still North America's greatest maritime disaster) to Bhopal to the New Orleans flood, I claim you can cite either the 'fatal flaw' or the invalidity of assumptions 1 or 2.

Not to beat up on the guy who was looking for the pipe thickness chart, but the attitudes toward the value of quickie charts are much more influential than management systems. A designer who thinks, 'The chart shows me a starting point in specifying the proper thickness,' has a constructive attitude; the designer who thinks 'The chart lets me get around engineering oversight and avoid doing my homework,' is a menace, not in the least because his management may decide that the guy is a go getter who can cut through all the complications raised by those clots in engineering. A management system can never sort out one from the other before the explosion.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at chrisw@skypoint.com | this distance" (last words of Gen.

.......................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania