How Standards prepared ?

"the meetings are intermitable 'staying awake contests' " Sooo very true Del. I've also been in some of those meetings where 3 minutes seems like 3 hours.

I wonder, do they always crank up the heat to make us sleepy or is it our bodies rebelling against our attempts to stay awake during these somnambulistic assmblies?

I remember one medical committee in some posh building in the 'City' area of London...
Well... I remember the artwork on the walls, the delicious food and the waitresses .. but not the meeting .

Yes it seems you've experienced the dreaded "Spec Lashing" LOL. Me too. Some of the excellent (I appraise them unbiasedly LOL) solutions to vexing problems have been summarily rejected by management for failing to conform entirely with some arcane provision of some (irrelevent) specification and I have felt the whip crack of 'non conformance' also.

Since the advent of ISO intervention the complexity of attempting to adhere to the ever changing specifications has become a more complicated test to see if you can get your drawing/product, solution or whatever into production before some nerdy regulator swoops down from their ceiling perch and poops on you best efforts.

The old Mil Specs were massaged to a fairly ambiguous level however some of these ISO specs are ludricous in their intent. For instance ISO 9001 (I think) paragraph 4.3 requires validation of our software every year ! Huh?!! Is my Catia going to change? Is my old CAD release #14 going to somehow become somehow inaccurate? I don't think so but the ISO (incredibly stupid organization) does.

So we waste hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars "validating" software and finding nothing aniss. As Monty Python would say "It's just stupid, bloody stupid".

paragraph 4.3 requires validation of our software every year ! Huh?!

Ah you need a nice big file with a nice big form in it to note all software changes made during the year.... this pristine unused form can sit snuggly in it's otherwise empty folder in a suitably secure location until next year, when it can be dutifully checked, audited, have 'No change' written neatly on it, initialled, dated and popped back again for another year .

Del

Ah yes Del, I forgot mad dogs and Englishmen have the benefit of being well trained by the Indians in the nuances of compounding paperwork (LOL) where we, the slovenly Americans, have not had the benefit of such expertise unless you consider the input of the Germans, in the form of TUV officiousness, who came and lectured us on the ISO importance of maintaining accurate records on such critical events as water fountain usage, farting and gazing out the windows.

Of course we were also innudated with forms to complete and we found time away from the unimportance of designing and solving problems to while away the day with the greater importance of validating the oil spots in the parking lot, software, and toilet tissue.

I have now been converted to a more Episcopalian way of thinking. If it's not in the book, it doesn't exist. I once longed to be an existentialist, reasoning without boundaries, persuing logic and invention to benefit the end result. But alas, that grand desire has found new comfort in the labyrinth of specifications requiring that I only perform to the stated level of incompetance so specified.

It reminds me of the peanut butter specification where six ounces of rodent feces is allowed per every one thousand pounds of product. So the purchase order is let and rodent feces is purchased and added to insure this specification is met to it's fullest intent.

Thank you Del for the advice on the folder and it's contents. I shall procure one of those just as soon as I can find my way out of this cubicle which is filled with all the other required forms, studies and books many of which tell me how to fill out these forms, evaluate the studies and read the books.

So the purchase order is let and rodent feces is purchased and added to insure this specification is met to it's fullest intent.
PMSL

Ah, but is the producer ISO-9000 certified?