Systemic

[rmaki]

In my organization there is a systemic problem that is hard to address.
Senior Engineers can not make drawings to the industry Standards and top management don't seems to care or resolve the problem because they themselves can not read drawings properly.Is the next step the legal counsel of the company besides training,or ?
I think that this problem is big enough to create serious liability to the company.We already manage to get in trouble with the regulators.

Thanks.

 

[ewh]

Whoa there...
What is the effect of this lack of following standards? Which standards are you referring to, ASME or ANSI? What type of product? Aerospace is a big field.
I don't think there is any reason to get lawyers involved in this. There are many tests that critical aerospace components must pass before they are allowed to "fly". The biggest effect of not following industry standards is usually monetary. Failing a customer audit and losing their business or producing a lot of scrap due to ambiguous drawings is usually punishment enough. If critical parts are made in which it would be very difficult to find any defects after inspection and testing due to not following standards, then maybe, just maybe, there would be reason to go to the legal department.

"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]

 

[MechNorth]

Escalating to the lawyers before all internal possibilities are exhausted will have ugly consequences for you, so unless there is immediate risk to the public, I'd try to quickly build a case that could be presented to management first. Hot-button topics for management tend to include waste, competetiveness, and liability. If the workpieces must be regulation-compliant to a specified government standard but aren't, that's another facet to approach as the potential for fines and punitive actions isn't trivial in many cases.

If you are a PE or member of another licensure body, that organization may be able to protect you to some degree under a Whistle Blower clause if needed, but usually only if you have exhausted all internal options or the public is at immediate risk.

Be careful how you tread; politics are ugly, and this is clearly a political issue.

Jim Sykes, P.Eng, GDTP-S
Profile Services

http://www.profileservices.ca

TecEase, Inc.

http://www.tec-ease.com

 

[KENAT]

Welcome to my world, except I don't have the same safety concerns.

I've made a few posts on similar issues so you may want to take a look at those to see if there's anything of value there.

As ewh says, while there are definitely exceptions, generally poor drawings cost time & money not lives. Do you have specific samples of safety being affected?

If you could give more information such as what standards you work to, what your position in the organization is, if you have separate drafters etc. then maybe folks can come up with some more targetted suggestions.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484