Re: Safety & Tech Manuals

Subject: Re: Safety & Tech Manuals
From: Jack Shaw <jsh -at- SOFTWARE-AG -dot- DE>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 10:24:18 MEZ

Regarding Rick Lippincott's dilemma on safety warning overkill,
there are a couple of things that you might try:

1. A clear up-front eye-grabber warning about the nature
of the ion implanter beast that outlines the general
dangers of use/abuse of the equipment. Right on the
front cover wouldn't be bad...there's nothing to sell
at this point, except proper use of the equipment.

2. A clear caveat sticker on a conspicuous part of the
equipment, warning of whatever exposures/dangers there
are. But not like the sages at Horribly Anachronistic
Labyrinth Computer Co. did on a portable fiche viewer
us field engipreneurs were forced to use; it said, "DO
NOT CHANGE THE BULB WHEN POWER IS SWITCHED ON, DUMMY!!"
--but they glued it right under the bulb where, when
the power was on and the bulb was lit, you couldn't read
it for the glare...

3. If it's fair to assess the ion implanter as being used
and meant for use by ONLY certified professional ion
implanters (sorry, but it's not really my field...),
then a clear equipement labelling and manual statement
saying to whom the manual is directed and by whom the
equipment should be used, sets some safety ground rules
and narrows the need to idiot-proof the book.

But...when you find yourself trying to re-engineer the equip.
in the book because some equipment has some need of improvement,
you have a problem. I'd suggest having a grizzled, battlefield
trained ion implanter at those manual review meetings who has
the gumption to voice hir (sic) studied opinion about what's
needed, and what's self-defeating.

And, there's usually an overwhelming body of "thou shalt/not"
safety stuff that preexists and can be a precedent to be cited,
like "...this Swiss Army Knife is meant for use only as defined
in the Swiss Army Knife Manufacturer's ISO 9000 Usability and
Safety Guidelines, page 872 pp, available from the Swiss Army
Knife Manufacturer's Association, Muesli Blvd., Hong Kong...",
or whatever.

Just don't glue the safety label on the core reactor or whatever...
smells like the dickens when you fire it up...right, HAL?

J. Shaw
jsh -at- software-ag -dot- de


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