Hi Guys,
I recently start a position in a company doing automation. In the first days , I check an electrical cabinet that has a linear controller( a beauty of controller) inmediteatly I notice that there was no emergency button. Also they didnt isolated neutral line and only isolated live line. I race the question to my manager and then we send an email. They respond that It will be an extra cost to put an emergency button
. how in hell they didnt put the button? do they dont know that building and designing the cabinet makes them responsible?
I am in a problem because I want to address that this is a stupid error that it is from a stupid design. But I am new in the job and I dont want to start to create friction with the suppliers.
Any suggestions an hints in how to talk and address this are welcome.
This can be tricky, and it's hard to give a concrete answer because it depends on the situation.
I don't think you should drop it entirely, but don't be the guy just going on and on about this one thing. But if you are polite about it I think you can bring it up again.
First, it's always good to be humble and check your assumptions. Missing e-stop and insufficient isolation both could be serious issues, but depend on the situation. You are probably right, but do try to make sure that these are real issues -- "the way it should be" or is it just "nice to have"? Or maybe there is some alternative protections that they didn't actually explain to you? This can also help frame your conversations -- rather than saying "this is what you have to do" you can explain the types of systems you are used to and why they have certain safety features, and be asking how this system handles it.
If there are relevant standards or documented industry norms that you can point to, that also will help. It's a lot easier for a manager to do something to decide to comply with an industry standard rather than "because the new guy said so".
You might also need a bit of time to figure out the right person to talk to at the new organization. It's possible that your first email just didn't go to the right person. In any organization there are people who are actually motivated and empowered to fix things and there are those who aren't. It's not necessarily anything to do with their job title.