Ted,
Good job. But, please, don't stop there. Maybe you should work with Gary
Hogan and between you I see quite a good and useful primer in the works.
Your second statement is the key. But these web sites don't really start at
step 2, more like they start at steps 3 or 4. I am looking for not only the
initial why, but where do you go from there, how do you find those sites or
sources that can guide you further down the trail? The first overview,
especially for the non-technical or even the beginning compliance type, is
critical. But once you know that you should or that you have to, how to
figure out where to get the next piece of the puzzle.
I see something starting out with those explanations about problems caused
by lack of compliance, sort of starting at the real world and showing what
problems arise due to lack of compliance. This covers a whole range of
issues from life safety to product performance and reliability and
including customer satisfaction. Needs to be somewhat brief (is that
possible?), remembering the target audience. This covers what compliance
is, how it is used, and how it can be beneficial for more than just
liability reasons.
Once the background is laid out, I can see an overview of the world of
compliance. Who makes the rules, how they get approved, how they become
required. This applies to those required by law as well as to those
required by due diligence or to satisfy customers. The who encompasses
governments like the EU or the US Congress. The how is by laws, directives,
or regulations. Of course the legal types (congressmen) don't actually do
the work. They just adopt what independent agencies, like the UL's or
ANSI's or NFPA's of the world, create. So a bit about the creation goes
along with the adoption.
After that, what are the ways to show compliance. Technical construction
files, testing, certifications, etc. Explaining each type of process then
transitions into the independent test and certification process. Examples
of the major players, the UL, CSA, TUV, type of test and marking. Proving
compliance by supportable means, either third party, or by qualified
internal programs. In this case, here is where the liability protection
comes in. Need to be able to show my internal lab is making supportable
tests and results are acceptable to experts, etc. Will it hold up in court?
Does it meet the spirit and intent?
And this is just all the up front stuff. Notice I did not go into any
detail about how we compliance types actually do our jobs, how we follow
the tree from the directive to the generic, family and then specific test
we need to do. That would be probably another dozen books.
Anyway, I was hoping to spare myself the hours it will take to write up a
report for the man, hoping it was already "out there" waiting to be plucked.
Scott
At 11:32 AM 7/29/02 -0500, you wrote:
what a good question. I think I understand your situation, with so much to
know where do you begin?
Numerous websites take the process from step 2 onwards but step 1 is the
concept which may not be obvious to the non-technical person.
It will help if the person has a grasp of basic science, that is
electricity, heat, mechanics.
Try this approach: For a non technical person it is the simple issues that
have to be underlined.
First, step outside your company operations; try to see the product you
make as just one item in a system of hardware; the customer needs the
whole system to run reliably with minimal downtime.
That mean everyone's products have to link up without unforeseen
interactions, with robustness to operator error; it has to keep working
when lightning strikes and restart safely after a power outage. It mustn't
burst into flames when abused; mustn't interfere with allocated radio
frequencies, telephones, video cameras etc,; mustn't kill the service
engineer; must be insurable.................
Can the equipment fail?
How?
Who pays to fix it?
Can someone be injured while installing operating or servicing?
Can connected equipment be damaged?
Can it degrade the performance of another item nearby?
How to avoid the cost of equipment failure and repair.
How to avoid the cost of injury to the installer, operator and service
engineer.
How to avoid the cost of explosive damage and consequential loss.
How to avoid the cost of installation debugging due to interactions.
Regulatory bodies exist to raise the standard of hardware so that
beginning at the design stage new equipment gets built incorporating all
the knowledge gained from prior experience about reliability and performance.
There are three categories of concern:
safety: legal liability arising from electrical shock hazard and fire hazard
performance: where is it used? a submarine? an aircraft? an office? what
are the build requirements and maintenance requirements for the expected
life cycle?
interaction: what are the requirements to perform reliably in hostile
electrical environments such as RF fields, lightning strikes? What are the
requirements to limit the emission of nuisance energy which might
adversely affect connected equipment and or nearby equipment?
...........
better stop there
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