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What would be the outcome when making a mistake in a calculation for a project?
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Xinrui Alice’s Answer
Hi Maria,
In many industries that impact people's health and safety, mistakes in some calculations can have dramatic impact. However, in these industries, there are processes in place to help prevent and catch these mistakes. For example, most companies have design reviews as part of their product development process, and have a Quality department where it's the Quality Engineer's job to review the work of other engineers. In my field of Medical Devices, the FDA requires rigorous testing and documentation in order for products to be sold. If there was a mistake in calculating something that makes the device not work properly, and the mistake was not caught during design review, it should be caught during testing where we verify the product is functioning properly.
This is a great question to ask, but don't be afraid of making mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and the important thing is to be aware of this, and get feedback from people you trust as early and as often as you can so you can catch those mistakes early. My advice is keep being humble and learn from your mistakes.
Google quality control.
In many industries that impact people's health and safety, mistakes in some calculations can have dramatic impact. However, in these industries, there are processes in place to help prevent and catch these mistakes. For example, most companies have design reviews as part of their product development process, and have a Quality department where it's the Quality Engineer's job to review the work of other engineers. In my field of Medical Devices, the FDA requires rigorous testing and documentation in order for products to be sold. If there was a mistake in calculating something that makes the device not work properly, and the mistake was not caught during design review, it should be caught during testing where we verify the product is functioning properly.
This is a great question to ask, but don't be afraid of making mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and the important thing is to be aware of this, and get feedback from people you trust as early and as often as you can so you can catch those mistakes early. My advice is keep being humble and learn from your mistakes.
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Jason’s Answer
It would really depend on the situation, if you make an error in calculation for the amount of concrete to use for a supporting beam it could cause the building to go down. I once made a mistake in calculation for the error tolerance in semiconductor manufacturing and could cause an entire batch of chips to be thrown away. Lucky i managed to find the issue and fix it. Double and triple check your calculation on critical items. It is also good to get another set of eyes on critical calculations
Thank you.
Maria