A belated new year greetings.
Of late, I am not getting any motivation to blog as what I see every day are nothing but same issues on which I already mentioned in my earlier blogs. People talk on safety but do not care to implement; talk on safety culture but do not follow; utter chaos on the roads with least regard for traffic rules or pedestrians; no respect for signals even by pedestrians who cross the roads even when signage is ON for vehicles, etc.
Now, the discussion on the title of this blog: Quite a few occasions, I read about collapse of buildings/ overhead structures/bridges, failure of equipment (leakages/rupture/bursting/collapse), and a few years ago I even heard from my wife that the chassis of a two-wheeler scooter of 1 year old broke at the centre, etc.
Though, people claim that the design is as per applicable codes like, NBC, ASME, IS, etc, still if the failures are taking place implies that the fabrication/manufacturing/usage is not proper (assuming design is perfect). It also means that quality checks are not proper, even if fabrication/construction is to be blamed.
Many times people rely on the designs and assume that everything is going to be alright giving not much attention to other aspects.
It is sad that though people chant, "SAFETY FIRST, QUALITY NEXT & PRODUCTION LAST" on list of priorities, actually it is the other way. One can not say that quality gets second priority to safety, as both safety and quality are interlinked and are integral. Safety during construction/fabrication ensures well being of the workers on the shopfloor/in the plant at that time, but a product with poor quality endangers the lives of users and those around. Factory workers are aware of hazards in their job, but not the public who use the produce.
The number of persons going to be affected can also be a huge number depending upon the product we consider. A poor quality waist belt may affect the user alone. But, a poorly constructed building/bridge can affect many lives.
Hence, we have to give top priority for quality also to ensure safety of all.