Forum – 2000-08-01

Product of the Year deadline approaching The entry deadline for Plant Engineering's Product of the Year competition is quickly approaching. The deadline is 5:00 p.m. CDT, September 15, 2000.

By Staff August 1, 2000

Product of the Year deadline approaching

The entry deadline for Plant Engineering’s Product of the Year competition is quickly approaching. The deadline is 5:00 p.m. CDT, September 15, 2000.

The Plant Engineering Product of the Year Awards have become recognized as the premier honor for new products in the plant engineering market.

Any new plant engineering-related product introduced for purchase between October 1, 1999, and September 30, 2000, is eligible.

Some products reflect today’s sophisticated, high-tech world, while others represent pure simplicity of design. All of our winners, however, have been honored for creating an especially useful product for the plant engineer.

For more details on the competition, or to take a look at some of the previous winners in this contest, visit our web site at www.plantengineering.com.

Overtime on Saturday? Maybe, maybe not

In regard to the Human Side of Engineering article, “Overtime Saturday. Sorry, I can’t make it” (PE, February 2000, p 16), I do not think that Plant Engineer Rankin and Maintenance Foreman Clooney would win if this issue ever went into arbitration.

The contract clause is based on needing personnel to do emergency work on a weekend. Emergency work to me means that the plant will not operate and production is being lost or some similar situation. In this case, this is a lab wiring job which takes planning and scheduling to set up. It is hard to see where this constitutes an emergency that could not have been anticipated and scheduled to meet the 24-hr requirement.

This looks like a case of management wanting a job completed to meet a goal and deciding at the last minute that they need someone over the weekend to meet the schedule. Rankin and Clooney should rethink their position.

Bill Linden, Safety Engineer, Union Carbide Corp., S. Charleston, WV

I also disagree with the outcome of “Overtime Saturday. Sorry, I can’t make it.” It is true that in an emergency, an employee can be ordered to work overtime. But the company’s decision at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon that the lab rewiring job has to be completed by Monday does not sound like an emergency. It sounds like a job that had already been started and planned out. An emergency is a sudden breakdown, not a last minute decision by the company.

Steve Kunz, Chief of General Maintenance, Megas BeautyCare, Valley Park, MO

Calendar

August 21-24, 2000-ISA EXPO/ 2000 – The International Conference and EXPOsition for Advancing Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Professionals, New Orleans, LA. For more information, contact ISA Customer Service at 919-549-8411; e-mail: info@isa.org; or visit www.isa.org.

October 13-20, 2000-National Safety Council’s 88th Annual Congress & Expo 2000, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL. For more information, contact the National Safety Council at 630-285-1121; e-mail:

customerservice@nsc.org; or visit www. congress.nsc.org

October 16-18, 2000-Facilities America 2000 Exposition and Conference, St. Louis, MO. For more information, call 877-983-2462; fax: 513- 683-8515; e-mail: cmtaylor@fuse.net; or visit www.facilitiesamerica.com.