Design teams

In a mature facility the design team for a new building or an addition to an old building should seek input from the maintenance department. Maintenance workers know what equipment and material is difficult to maintain, and the standard in the existing facility employed in order to prevent stocking of many different replacement parts. 

Jin, Y., Levitt, R. E., Christiansen, T. R. and Kunz, I. C. 1995 Modelling Organisational Behaviour of Concurrent Design Teams. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design Analysis and Manufacturing, 9(2), 145-158. 

Casimir, in his memoirs, mentions that the first Philips representative to visit Brookhaven gave the design team a set of guaranteed magnetic specifications which were too conservative, and Brookhaven was pleased to find that the material was better than they had been led to expect. Casimir reckons that Brookhaven must have concluded that Philips was dumb but honest . 

For inherently safer interactions of designs and procedures, include an operator trained in human factors on the design team. 

During the inherent safety review, at the design development stage, identify potential human factors/ergonomics issues that should be addressed by the design team. 

As noted in Step 13 of the inherent safety review at the design development stage, the team reviews the process to develop a list of potential ergonomics/human factors issues. This list provides input to the design team so that these issues can be addressed as the design progresses. 

Is the design team staffed with personnel possessing the necessary qualification to implement the requirements of ISO/TS 16949 ... 

The standard requires that the supplier ensures the design team is qualified to achieve design requirements and identifies a list of appropriate skills. 

Quite why this requirements was necessary is a mystery as it duplicates that given in clause 4.18.1. However, in case anyone is in any doubt that the design team has to be qualified, this requirement draws attention to it so that suppliers will need a process in place to ensure unqualified designers are precluded and that auditors will check that designers are qualified. 

Should the design team have foreseen that the condensate might freeze A hazard and operability study (see Chapter 18) would probably have drawn attention to the hazard. 

The teams selected to design PSM systems should reflect the approach you have chosen. However, regardless of the approach you use, keep in mind some general characteristics of effective process design teams, which include ... 

StakeholderRepresentation. As previously noted, every process has owners, customers, and suppliers, and wherever possible all of these stakeholder groups should be represented on the PSM system design team. 

Sufficient Authority. PSM system development often requires working across ot anizational boundaries and in some companies this requires specific authority. In addition, to be effective, the design team and its leader should be adequately empowered to undertake the task at hand without needing multiple approvals every step of the way. 

Clearcut Mission. As with other team structures discussed in this volume, the design team needs a clearly articulated understanding of its mission, responsibilities, and limits. 

In considering team composition, you will probably find that many candidates have emerged through your PSM work to date. Members of the PSM assessment team, because of their exposure to the initiative, are logical leaders for design teams and sub-teams their continuing involvement also helps reinforce consistency. 

What Support or Resources They Can Expect. You should consider in advance what the design team s resource needs might be and how you can address them realistically. For example, if funds exist for travel, outside consulting services, or project management software, these maybe useful expenditures. Similarly, administrative support can expedite the team s efforts. Whatever the level of support your company can provide, if s important to make it clear if you must undertake systems design as a bare-bones effort, the team needs to know it in advance to avoid unrealistic expectations. 

What Incentives andjor Performance Criteria Apply. Participating in PSM system design may be its own reward however, this may not always be entirely realistic, especially when an assignment falls outside a team member s usual job description. Consider what incentives may apply to the design team s contribution to your company s PSM initiative. These need not necessarily be monetary they maybe incorporated into performance reviews, which should recogruze extra effort. Whatever the method, incentives (and disincentives) need consideration in advance and should be communicated clearly to team members. 

With the approach selected and the design team(s) designated, you can now begin to develop the PSM systems you have planned. A good place to start is with a team briefing that covers ... 

As suggested earlier, the format for the design team s work product depends on your compan/s style and practices. Some companies produce SOPs against a consistent format or template (see Figure 6-9 for an example). 

The human factors audit was part of a hazard analysis which was used to recommend the degree of automation required in blowdown situations. The results of the human factors audit were mainly in terms of major errors which could affect blowdown success likelihood, and causal factors such as procedures, training, control room design, team communications, and aspects of hardware equipment. The major emphasis of the study was on improving the human interaction with the blowdown system, whether manual or automatic. Two specific platform scenarios were investigated. One was a significant gas release in the molecular sieve module (MSM) on a relatively new platform, and the other a release in the separator module (SM) on an older generation platform. 

Once tlie system components and their failure modes have been identified, tlie acceptability of risks taken as a result of such failures must be determined. Tlie risk assessment process yields more comprehensive and better results when reliable statistical and probability data are available. In tlie absence of such data, tlie results are a strong function of tlie engineering judgment of tlie design team. The important issue is tliat both tlie severity and probability (frequency) of the accident must be taken into account. 

The best way to ensure controlled development of the brief, and of the cost plans which necessarily accompany it, is to set up a system of data sheets which define, in increasing detail as the project develops, the spatial, functional and servicing requirements of each component part of the project. A well-resourced technical client may wish to do this himself. More commonly, it is a task which should be entrusted to the design team. Whoever does it, regular joint review of this information will help to ensure satisfaction with the finished product. 

The carbon dioxide generated by the personnel in the artificial atmosphere of submarines and spacecraft must be removed from the air and the oxygen recovered. Submarine design teams have investigated the use of potassium superoxide, K02, as an air purifier because this compound reacts with carbon dioxide and releases oxygen (Fig. 4.16) ... 

The formal curriculum the elaboration of the original version in the documentation about the course that will be made widely available. All design teams produce such paperwork with design criteria, student materials and teacher materials (for that reason also called the designed curriculum). 

The team members must represent the various scientific disciplines that are associated with the experimental processes of Interest. The methodology requires the design team to meet several times over a period of several weeks to carry out a set of formal agendas described below and to conclude Its efforts with a formal document. The document will contain either a detailed experimental design that meets the constraints of the envisioned test program, or the document will show that an acceptable experimental design does not exist and the envisioned experiment should not be Implemented. In either case, the detailed documentation permits subsequent peer review. 

Because of the emphasis on experimental design. It Is required that a statistician serve as a member of the design team The assigned tasks and responsibilities for the statistician differ from those for the scientists The primary mechanism for obtaining the experimental design Is to require each scientist on the team to make explicit, documented, numerical predictions for all combinations of the test conditions specified In a factorial table In effect, such predictions require each scientist to quantify the effects of the experimental factors (control variables) on the dependent variable These predictions are based on the scientist s knowledge and assessment of related literature, data, experience, etc Candidate team members who are unable or unwilling to make such predictions are excluded from the team ... 

A preliminary meeting is usually required to describe the approach to candidate members of a design team. At this stage the responsibilities and obligations of the team members are made sufficiently clear so that prospective team members can evaluate their willingness and ability to participate. 

Ideally, the design team is responsible for making concurrent analyses of the actual test data as the data become available The team s understanding of the anticipated relations can be established by requiring the team scientists to make real time predictions of two kinds during the course of the experiment One kind occurs within a test condition In this case the data obtained to date from a particular test condition are used to predict the measurement values to be expected at a specified future date, say a week or month later for the same test condition A second kind of prediction involves across test conditions In this case the data obtained at one test condition are used to predict the measurement values for a different test condition at future specified dates ... 

Factorial tables, hierarchical trees, and associated mathematical models are elementary tools used to guide the efforts of the design team ... 

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