Alike all other forum members I, too, assign relative values to different moneys, that in absolute terms have the same buying power. In some cases I spend quickly for a Rs 1000/- tax refund, save slowly for a Rs 50000/- tax refund or be very conservative to invest from my monthly salary account - but, money is the same in every case.

Similar is true for piping stress manhours available. Due to our mental accounting, we tend to overspend cheap work-shared hours, while become thrifty on costly expert audit/review hours. Very often we presume expert insights in piping leads for this simple reason. We try not to spend on costly audits many a times, while remaining aware about the risk it is supposed to mitigate.

As most catastropic failures occur due to a sequence of unfortunate events, checking and review/audit should never be taken lightly.
I wish our learned forum memebers to tell us how we can overcome such mental accounting/ biases while remaining focussed to deliver a cheap but safe design quickly.


regards,

sam

Hi Sam,

It is the same all over the world. I have a framed, counted-cross-stitch work on my wall that says:

"Engineers don't care what things cost,
Accountants don't care what things do".

It is all a matter of perspective and standards of values. I am currently involved in checking "analysis calculations" for a combined cycle power generation plant and the company standards for performing the work and for checking the work are the most rigorous that I have seen outside the nuclear power industry. With some issues it is MORE rigorous. The work is often tedious but it is refreshing to work with a company that values their reputation and the client’s best interests. I leave the office at the end of the day completely tired but I am enjoying working with people who "DO sweat the details".

Often design jobs are tendered "competitively" with the important issue being who the work will be awarded to. In this case the engineers find that after the job is awarded there is just not enough time/money in the budget to do it right and thoroughly check the calculations. Too often this leads to negative results. But, in a "bottom-line" driven economy, sometimes that is just the way it is.

Regards, John.

Sir,

Was any time industry not 'bottom-line' driven? I doubt a company valuing their reputation & client's best interest can exist unless it sells!
Our bottomline is always linked with client's bottomline.

Moreover, engineers don't care what things cost, as your quote pronounces, but surely think about clients life-cycle cost & profitability. Otherwise, you couldn't enjoy working with people who sweat the details to maintain highest availability of the combcycle they are designing.

Narrow Operational/delivery focus of a manager is useful when global nature of conceptual issues of quality and risk mitigation are not neglected.

Our calculations have to sell, we must make it happen!

From a mentor of your height & weight, we wish to hear positive outlook about future as our free will guided by God's inspiration will surely change the destiny! Isn't it a sin to gamble with client's future just for a short-term profit knowingly ?

regards,

sam

The human race has progressed in the past in a stick and then slip fashion, I suspect it will for some time to come.

Costs will dominate the scene and then perhpas after some bad things happen correctness will dominate, with humans being momentarily diverted from one to another....

Reading the Latin texts of some 2000 years ago you can see the same issues that are around today in society were around then as well....

Sirs,

In this interesting time of stretched workforce and increased workload we sometimes lose focus on fundamentals - projects go beyond schedule and cost when we rush to construction phase and afterwords try to retrofit changes in design - we know this simple truth, but don't follow! Discipline to freeze the design minimizing changes before construction can really make life easy for all.

As John-Luf Sir has pointed, the human race has progressed in the past in a stick and then slip fashion and we may be in the slip mode of the cycle which can be reversed by simply bringing clarity in our goals. After all, we are all born as animals and become human by self regulation.

regards,

sam