What makes someone a competent person? 4

[Bluecat46]

Scenario

A 10 year internal Inspection of a Lagged Storage Tank carried out to a WSE written by 3rd Party.

The inspection was carried out and pitting was found. Plant Engineer with 15+ year’s industry experience had tank repaired and Dye Pen test, all done on the internal walls of the tank.

OK nothing unusual there.

However Engineer with 1 year industry experience asked the Plant Engineer the following questions,

• What standard was the repair done to,
• Did he get the welder qualification, WPS, information on the type of welding wire/rod used
• Did he check the external of the tank in the welded area (lagging would have to be removed. Removing lagging is not part of the WSE)
• Was a UTS done.

The answer to all was no because as the competent person he believed that it was not needed because he had followed the WSE done by the 3rd party. (The plant engineer is now going to get the welder information)

Who is the more competent?

 

[dvd]

One reason that surveys suck is that the questions can be asked in such a way as to affect the outcome. From the way that the question was asked the answer is "of course it is (you) the first year engineer."

Generally, it is good to assume that we are all part of a team and that such things as being "more competent" are not as important as cooperation and successful outcomes

 

[casseopeia]

The more competent person will figure out a way to check the completed repairs to see if they are adequate and not worry so much about a gold star.

"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge." Ivana Trump

 

[IRstuff]

Neither. Following rules and regulations does not guarantee or even indicate competency, particularly in such a narrow view. An experienced engineer may not necessarily need to run some fancy test to know that something is OK; that's something that does come with experience. Whether or not this is the case is not obvious.

Are these actions supposed to be done on every similar operation? Is that documented in the plant procedures or operational manuals? If not, and they're supposed to be done, then the person you talked to is at fault for not knowing, and for playing into whatever game you're playing. If the documentation exists, then shame on the engineer for not following procedure. However, none of that affects "competency," since the engineer in question could potentially run circles around you in some other problem scenario. Would that make you incompetent if that were the case?

I think that someone who spouts acronyms without definition into a a general-interest forum is trying to show off his supposed competency.

Is there a problem between the two of you?

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[MiketheEngineer]

While I am not sure the "old" guy did that great a job - the "new" guy is obviously out to make a name for himself. (He might get fired by the "old" guy) Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get!!

Somewhere - there is a SAFE, ECONOMICAL and HAPPY medium!!

 

[drawoh]

Bluecat46,

Was the question asked politely, or was it aggressive, and in a tone implying that the 15+ engineer is an idiot? Could there be some office politics going on?

JHG

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Seems there might be??!! Kind of my point.

 

[MintJulep]

Neither.

Both incompetent for different reasons.

 

[patprimmer]

Well I thought the question was so biased and loaded I could not bother answering, however I did give dvd a star.

I once saw an episode of yes minister where Sir Humphry asked Jim what result he wanted from a poll. He then gave two versions of the same basic question that would obviously get opposite results. As I recall, one question was about oppressive greedy bosses and workers rights and the other was about trade union bullies holding the public to ransom. I saw one half of a similar theme in the OP.

Regards
Pat
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[ukengineer58]

an engineer who thinks he knows it all is a sure sign of incompetance

 

[a7x1984]

Narrow example from a broad question and chock full of ego. If I were 22 years old and this were YouTube I would "Dislike". Suggestion: Frame your questions/comments out of concern for standards and safety, not intelligence.

"Structural engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot..."...ah...screw it, we don't know what the heck we are doing.

 

[rowingengineer]

Who is the more competent? I am

http://www.nceng.com.au/

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

 

[Bluecat46]

Thanks everyone, I enjoyed the Monday morning read.

Thanks to DVD for the outstanding comment

And to IRSuff, we actually get on very well and have a good laugh and he does point me in the right direction on some things, but he does not always follow through on these things himself. This is partly why I asked the question.

I was trying to ask the question “What makes a person competent?” maybe I should have just asked that question. But sometimes you need to give back ground information and yes the question may have been bias and loaded, in my favour.

Ok I will start a new thread and ask a simple question. “What makes a person competent?”

 

[MacGyverS2000]

A lack of incompetence... though that might not cover all situations, either...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[GregLocock]

Wally?

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[ports394]

Well.. the other replies kind of took care of what I was going to say.

The experienced engineer also had a qualified welder doing the job. They know what metals to mix and what flux to use etc. Most likely they know it much better than any of us would off the top of our head.