The Challenger disaster was due to management discounting engineering input.
While engineers like to jump all over that, it is also an indictment of safety engineers being overly cautious. And that is due to there being a strong line of demarcation between the management responsibility to deliver a product on time and within budget vs. making sure the thing is safe. In theory this avoids putting undue conflict of interest type stress on the safety folks, but in reality what it does is remove from safety any responsibility for getting the product delivered. The safety folks won’t get in trouble if the thing doesn’t fly. Even better: the safety folks ae safe if the thing never flies. “A ship is safe in a harbor, but a ship isn’t made to stay in a harbor.” If management can’t rely on engineering, then they simply wing it. -- Ken Javor (256) 650-5261 From: John Woodgate <j...@woodjohn.uk> Reply-To: John Woodgate <j...@woodjohn.uk> Date: Friday, September 14, 2018 at 1:02 PM To: <EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG> Subject: Re: [PSES] How to lose another million dollars I seem to recall that the Challenger disaster was partly caused by escalation either blocked or discounted. John Woodgate OOO-Own Opinions Only J M Woodgate and Associates www.woodjohn.uk Rayleigh, Essex UK On 2018-09-14 18:33, Schmidt, Mark wrote: Ignorance can be achieved at all levels of management. Not sure escalating is the best way forward. Just sayin. - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com> - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
