I worked for almost 20 years for a public institution. During that time I worked up a list of goals of our mechanical systems, trying to get good value for the tax payers money.
Some of these may or may not apply to all situations, but I thought it might be worthy of discussion.
Systems shall be as follows:
To satisfy our responsibility to the public:
1. Safe – protecting and not endangering the public nor the users of these systems and meeting both the letter and spirit of applicable codes and standards
To get a buildable project:
2a. Functional – meeting the operational needs of the users
2b. Affordable – within the budgetary limits of the user’s project
To provide a project that the user can afford to opperate:
3a. Maintainable – incorporating easy maintenance to assure long life
3b. Energy efficient – meeting or exceeding the applicable codes and standards
3c. Reliable - robust in design allowing operation with minimal necessary maintenance
To provide a project that will function properly long term:
4a. Flexible – providing for long term possible needs of the user
4b. Long lasting – operating not only reliably and with minimum maintenance, but for many years, giving good value to the users dollar
To interest ourselves:
5. Innovative – as long as it enhances the value to the user and does not detract from the other listed items
Some of these may or may not apply to all situations, but I thought it might be worthy of discussion.
Systems shall be as follows:
To satisfy our responsibility to the public:
1. Safe – protecting and not endangering the public nor the users of these systems and meeting both the letter and spirit of applicable codes and standards
To get a buildable project:
2a. Functional – meeting the operational needs of the users
2b. Affordable – within the budgetary limits of the user’s project
To provide a project that the user can afford to opperate:
3a. Maintainable – incorporating easy maintenance to assure long life
3b. Energy efficient – meeting or exceeding the applicable codes and standards
3c. Reliable - robust in design allowing operation with minimal necessary maintenance
To provide a project that will function properly long term:
4a. Flexible – providing for long term possible needs of the user
4b. Long lasting – operating not only reliably and with minimum maintenance, but for many years, giving good value to the users dollar
To interest ourselves:
5. Innovative – as long as it enhances the value to the user and does not detract from the other listed items