This is a good point for discussion, but doesn't it ignore the difference between safety and compliance. You can put unsafe but compliant products on the market because compliance does not catch all safety issues. Maybe the cost of testing should be a legal expense if you believe the product is safe and you are only testing to get the appropriate legal cover. Should the added cost of the safety features be considered a marketing or legal expense? Also, I have had marketing try to dictate a less safe product because they wanted it cheaper, or didn't want all those distracting labels, or didn't want those ugly warnings in their pretty manuals, or worse, didn't want to imply that there were any hazards with the product.
Jack Burns <mailto:jbu...@ieee.org> jbu...@ieee.org cell - 512 422 5829 From: emc-p...@ieee.org [mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org] On Behalf Of Doug Nix Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 9:02 AM To: John Woodgate Cc: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] The Cost of Safety John, I never thought of it that way. Great perspective! Thanks! Doug Nix d...@mac.com "The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances." Viktor Frankl "Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." Mahatma Gandhi On 7-December-2012, at 02:32, John Woodgate wrote: Safety and EMC 3rd party testing costs are properly a marketing expense, because they are incurred in order to be allowed on to the market. They are not a charge on R&D, because the products work perfectly OK without the testing. - ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@radiusnorth.net> 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://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@radiusnorth.net> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
