What makes someone a competent person?
What makes someone a competent person?
(OP)
Scenario
A 10 year internal Inspection of a Lagged Storage Tank carried out to a WSE written by 3rd Party.
The inspection was carried out and pitting was found. Plant Engineer with 15+ year's industry experience had tank repaired and Dye Pen test, all done on the internal walls of the tank.
OK nothing unusual there.
However Engineer with 1 year industry experience asked the Plant Engineer the following questions,
• What standard was the repair done to,
• Did he get the welder qualification, WPS, information on the type of welding wire/rod used
• Did he check the external of the tank in the welded area (lagging would have to be removed. Removing lagging is not part of the WSE)
• Was a UTS done.
The answer to all was no because as the competent person he believed that it was not needed because he had followed the WSE done by the 3rd party. (The plant engineer is now going to get the welder information)
Who is the more competent?
A 10 year internal Inspection of a Lagged Storage Tank carried out to a WSE written by 3rd Party.
The inspection was carried out and pitting was found. Plant Engineer with 15+ year's industry experience had tank repaired and Dye Pen test, all done on the internal walls of the tank.
OK nothing unusual there.
However Engineer with 1 year industry experience asked the Plant Engineer the following questions,
• What standard was the repair done to,
• Did he get the welder qualification, WPS, information on the type of welding wire/rod used
• Did he check the external of the tank in the welded area (lagging would have to be removed. Removing lagging is not part of the WSE)
• Was a UTS done.
The answer to all was no because as the competent person he believed that it was not needed because he had followed the WSE done by the 3rd party. (The plant engineer is now going to get the welder information)
Who is the more competent?





RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Generally, it is good to assume that we are all part of a team and that such things as being "more competent" are not as important as cooperation and successful outcomes
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge." Ivana Trump
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Are these actions supposed to be done on every similar operation? Is that documented in the plant procedures or operational manuals? If not, and they're supposed to be done, then the person you talked to is at fault for not knowing, and for playing into whatever game you're playing. If the documentation exists, then shame on the engineer for not following procedure. However, none of that affects "competency," since the engineer in question could potentially run circles around you in some other problem scenario. Would that make you incompetent if that were the case?
I think that someone who spouts acronyms without definition into a a general-interest forum is trying to show off his supposed competency.
Is there a problem between the two of you?
TTFN

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RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Somewhere - there is a SAFE, ECONOMICAL and HAPPY medium!!
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Was the question asked politely, or was it aggressive, and in a tone implying that the 15+ engineer is an idiot? Could there be some office politics going on?
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Both incompetent for different reasons.
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
I once saw an episode of yes minister where Sir Humphry asked Jim what result he wanted from a poll. He then gave two versions of the same basic question that would obviously get opposite results. As I recall, one question was about oppressive greedy bosses and workers rights and the other was about trade union bullies holding the public to ransom. I saw one half of a similar theme in the OP.
Regards
Pat
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RE: What makes someone a competent person?
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
"Structural engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot..."...ah...screw it, we don't know what the heck we are doing.
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
http://www.nceng.com.au/
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Thanks to DVD for the outstanding comment
And to IRSuff, we actually get on very well and have a good laugh and he does point me in the right direction on some things, but he does not always follow through on these things himself. This is partly why I asked the question.
I was trying to ask the question "What makes a person competent?" maybe I should have just asked that question. But sometimes you need to give back ground information and yes the question may have been bias and loaded, in my favour.
Ok I will start a new thread and ask a simple question. "What makes a person competent?"
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: What makes someone a competent person?
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: What makes someone a competent person?
The experienced engineer also had a qualified welder doing the job. They know what metals to mix and what flux to use etc. Most likely they know it much better than any of us would off the top of our head.