'Misuse' is the negative of 'use', or as Mike correctly made a suggestion:
"We emphasized how to use our equipment correctly, and what the scope of
its applications were."
The better you describe the positive, the easier it is to define the
negative.
I have seen many operating manuals (such as garden equipment) even
lacking the 'positive' ie the "intentional use" of equipment. How to
define any misuse in such a case ?
In the standardization world 3 descriptions are used
* Intended use - a decent description of this will automatically
define all misuses, as not addressed in the intended use description
* Foreseeable (mis)use
* Unforeseeable (mis)use
The foreseeable category is the one the manufacturer shall be concerned
with. Some equipment that is able to cut grass, can be foreseeably be
misused in many cutting applications it was not meant for. The cutting
can be applied to not suitable materials, the lawn mower may be misused
to attack a meadow, or your dogs long hair. (not even suggesting your
wife's hair😁). A risk analysis (risk = chance*severeness*avoid-ability)
may help in ranking misuses and the manufacture shall define the 3 risk
thresholds were 'physical measures' (annihilating the danger) are needed
or "warning on the equipment" or just "warnings in the manual" may do
in mitigating the hazard. Some standards have specific requirements on
these. Risk analysis shall include as many parties as the manufacturer
can contact, such as engineers, production workers, customers, laymen
and others that can get in contact with your product. Do not only
consider the operating state, but also transport, repair work, storage,
loss of coordination between manual, product and software version
(button changed color), or even batch or serial numbering. No risk
shall be considered to be too small not to be included in the analysis.
The difference is in how the risks are addressed. This will avoid having
a too extensive safety warning section, and at the same time the
requirements of any auditor.
Just my 2 cents.
Gert Gremmen
On 5-10-2022 20:01, Brian Kunde wrote:
My company manufactures Laboratory Equipment such as analyzers and
determinators. They are highly specialized equipment, yet have an
infinite range of uses.
Even though all known residual risks are documented in the Safety
Warning section of the manual, they will commonly request a list of
Misuses. There are no buttons, or settings that can be changed by the
User that can cause a hazard. The operational environment is clearly
defined. So in most all cases, I am not aware of any "Misuse" that can
cause a hazard. For some reason, this answer is not acceptable. We
are expected to come up with something.
Is there a standard or common list of MisUses that seem to satisfy
this requirement?
How crazy are we to get with this?, e.g., don't use the 400lb analyzer
while taking a bath? Don't use it to mow your lawn? Common!!!!
I used to work for a computer company and I couldn't believe the
stupid warnings we had to put in the manual.
Thanks to all.
The Other Brian
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