Introduction:

The prevailing style of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) engineering management must undergo
transformation to be safe and to increase safety and redefine what level of protection of public health is regarded as adequate and to protect the public catastrophic event such as Fukishima.
  Existing Nuclear Power Plant Engineering system management cannot understand itself. The development of the new NPP design requires transformation view from outside, the need to reevaluate and upgrade as necessary the design-basis seismic and flooding protection of structures, systems and components for each operating reactor and reconfirms that design basis every 10 years that will address any new and significant information. Update the design basis documents for system component important to safety to defend against the restructured hazards.

Purpose

These should be undertaken to prevent fuel damage and to ensure containment and spent fuel pool integrity.  The intent of this discussion is to provide an outside view, a magnifying lens big enough that can be called an engineering system of thoughtful knowledge. Additionally, to provide a map of theory and values by which to understand the organizations that everybody work in and develop a close relationship among employees and management

First Step

The first step is engineer transformation. Presently, this transformation is broken. It comes from understanding of the engineering system of thoughtful knowledge. The individual engineer transformation will perceive new meaning to his life, to events, to safety, and to interactions between people and its safety protection.

Once the engineer understands the system of thoughtful knowledge, he will apply its values in every kind of relationship with other people. He will have a basis for judgment of his own decisions and for transformation of the organizations that he belongs to.

It has been encouraged that all engineering managers need to have System of Thoughtful Knowledge, consisting of the following:

1. Awareness of a system: understanding the overall processes involving designers, operators, suppliers, vendors, and customers (or recipients) of goods and services
2. Knowledge of deviation : understanding the range and causes of design deviation in engineering quality, and use of statistical sampling in measurements;
3. Concept of knowledge: understanding the concepts explaining knowledge and the limits of what can be known.

Concept of Psychology in Design Engineering Transformation

Understanding the concept of Psychology in NPP design engineering transformation begins with Human Factor Engineering (HFE) appreciative.  HFE appreciation is the science of human behavior and capability, applied to the design and operation of systems and technology.  As an applied field of human factor engineering and an interdisciplinary part of ergonomics, it aims to improve the relationships between people and machines by redesigning equipment, interactions, or the environment in which they take place. The work of an engineering psychologist is often described as making the relationship more "user-friendly."

Nuclear Plant Engineering Management Position

One need not be important in any part nor in all parts in order to understand its application. The helpful guides for engineering management in NPP generation are: a) plant operation, b) staff training, and c) application of outside knowledge, for transformation from the present style of present management to one of engineering design optimization.

The various segments of the engineering system of thoughtful knowledge proposed here cannot be separated. They interact with each other. Thus, acceptance of psychology is incomplete without knowledge of deviation.  95% of all improvement is from common causes and 5% of all improvement is from special causes. Guess which one managers focus on Because they take for granted common causes. Common causes are so common, how could one manager think about changing them Yet it is the change in the common cause which is the explosive improvement. It's a very important, that the key part of this whole thing, is to understand what a manager have to say to himself.

Try to notice and bring back what people tend to do is they take for granted all of the normal things they do, and then they look for the one special attention-grabber.  Common cause improvements come from changing the system or process. So you have to think through, what is our system What are we trying to get done What do we do routinely which if I could get a 10% improvement, because it would be 10% improvement routinely, it would be big When you focus too much on special causes, you actually disrupt the system and make things.

NPP engineering manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system and component that he works in, the responsibility of management. A psychologist that possesses even a basic understanding of deviation as will be learned in the process and could no longer participate in refinement of a plan for ranking people.

System of Thoughtful Knowledge

The Awareness of a system involves understanding how interactions or interface (i.e., feedback) between the elements of a system component can result in internal restrictions that force the system to behave as a single organism that automatically seeks a steady state. It is this steady state that determines the output of the engineering system component rather than the individual elements. Thus it is the structure of the organization rather than the engineers, alone, which holds the key to improving the quality of productivity.

The Knowledge of deviation involves understanding that everything measured consists of both "normal" deviation due to the flexibility of the system and of "special causes" that create defects. Engineering quality management involves recognizing the difference to eliminate "special causes" while controlling normal deviation. Thus making changes in response to "normal" deviation would only make the engineering system perform worse. Understanding deviation includes the mathematical certainty that deviation will normally occur within six standard deviations of the mean.

Twelve (12) Key Values to Effective Engineering Management Transformation

The twelve key values to Engineering Managers Effective Transformation are:

1. Create reliability of purpose toward improvement of engineering design, plant operation and service maintenance, with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and to provide safety power plant operation to the public.
2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Engineering quality management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Stop dependence on Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for massive NRC inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the engineering management design system of operation, plant maintenance and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute leadership The intent of engineering management should be to help individual engineer and to improve and innovate the system design components machines and gadgets do a better job. Engineering management is in need of repair, as well as supervision of maintenance and power plant operation workers.
7. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively with confidence for the utility...
8. Break down barriers between departments. People in engineering design, plant maintenance, plant commissioning and construction must work as a team, in order to foresee problems in engineering design and usage that may be encountered with the plant operation.
9. Get rid of slogans and targets for the plant operations asking for zero plant shutdown and new levels of productivity. Such catchphrase only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
10. Do away with work Quotas on the engineering design department. Substitute with guidance.
11. Eliminate engineering management by objective numbers and numerical goals. Instead substitute with clear direction.
12. Transformed Manager’s responsibility from absolute numbers to quality. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right.

Measurements of Management Transformation are:

• "The most important things cannot be measured." The issues that are most important, long term cannot be measured in advance. However, they might be among the factors that an organization is measuring, just not understood as most important at the time.
• "Experience by itself teaches nothing." This statement emphasizes the need to interpret and apply information against a theory or framework of concepts that is the basis for knowledge about a system. It is considered as a contrast to the old statement, "Experience is the best teacher" Knowledge is best taught by a master who explains in general the system through which experience is judged; experience, without understanding the underlying system, is just raw data that can be misinterpreted against a flawed theory of reality. The view of experience is related to concept, "Data has no meaning apart from its environment”
• "By what technique Only the technique counts."^] When information is obtained, or data is measured, the technique, or process used to gather information, greatly affects the results. Normally, when people just asking frequently for opinions seemed to affect the resulting outcome, since some people felt better just being asked for their opinion.
• Customer Complaints

• "The most important things are unknown or incomprehensible." The factors that have the greatest impact, long term, can be quite surprising. Analogous to an earthquake that disrupts service; other "earth-shattering" events that most affect an organization will be unknown or incomprehensible, in advance. Other examples of important things would be: a drastic change in technology, or new investment capital.

It was warned that basing judgments on customer complaints alone ignored the general population of other opinions, which should be judged together, such as in a statistical sample of the whole, not just isolated complaints: survey the entire group about their likes and dislikes.  The extreme complaints might not represent the attitudes of the whole group. Similarly, measuring or counting data depends on the instrument or technique used. Changing the technique changes the results. Aim and technique are essential. An aim without a technique is useless.

• A technique without an aim is unsafe. It leads to action without direction and without constancy of purpose. It gives direction to teach a lesson about the relationship between purpose and technique. If you tell someone to wash a school desk, but not the reason for washing it, they cannot do the job properly (will the school desk be used for writing notes or plotting a chart). That does not mean just giving the explanation without an operational definition. The information about why the school desk needs to be washed, and what is to be done with it, makes it possible to do the job intelligently
• Opportunity

"You can expect what you examine." It was emphasized the importance of measuring and testing to predict typical results. If a phase consists of inputs + process + outputs, all 3 are examined to some extent. Problems with inputs are a major source of trouble, but the process using those inputs can also have problems. By examining the inputs and the process more, the outputs can be better predicted, and inspected less. Rather than use mass examination of every output product, the output can be statistically sampled in a cause-effect relationship through the process.

• "Special reasons and ordinary reasons ": It was considered anomalies in quality to be deviations outside the control limits of a process. Such deviations could be attributed to one-time events called "special reasons” or to repeated events called "ordinary reasons” that hinder quality.
•  Satisfactory Defects: Rather than waste efforts on zero-plant shutdown goals, It was stressed the importance of establishing a level of deviation, or anomalies, acceptable to the recipient (or customer) in the next phase of a process. Often, some defects are quite suitable, and efforts to remove all defects would be an excessive waste of time and money.
• As a repetitive process to determine the next action, the Cycle describes a simple technique to test information before making a major decision. The 5 steps in the Cycle are: Summarized the critical steps, Anticipate errors for each critical step and relevant error precursors, Foresee probable and worst-case consequences should and error occur during each critical step; Evaluate controls or contingencies at each critical step to prevent, catch, and recover from errors, and to reduce their consequences; Review previous experience and lessons learned relevant to the specific task and critical step.
• Semi-Automatic, not fully Automatic: It was mourned over the problem of automation gone wrong ("robots painting robots"): instead, it was advocated human-assisted semi-automation, which allows people to change the semi-automated or computer-assisted processes, based on new knowledge.
• "The problem is at the top; management is the problem." It was emphasized that the top-level management had to change design to produce significant differences, in a long-term, continuous manner. Consultant would offer advice to top-level managers, if asked repeatedly, in a continuous manner.
• "What is a system A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.
•  "A system must be managed. It will not manage itself. Left to themselves in the Western world, components become selfish, competitive, independent profit centers, and thus destroy the system. The secret is cooperation between components toward the aim of the organization. We cannot afford the destructive effect of competition."
•  To successfully respond to the numerous of changes that shake the world, transformation into a new style of management is required. The route to take is called thoughtful knowledge—knowledge for leadership of transformation.
• The worker is not the problem. The problem is at the top! Management! Management's job. It is management's job to direct the efforts of all components toward the aim of the system. The first step is clarification: everyone in the organization must understand the aim of the system, and how to direct his efforts toward it. Everyone must understand the damage and loss to the whole organization from a team that seeks to become a selfish, independent, profit center.
• They realized that the gains that you get by statistical techniques are gains that you get without new machinery, without new people. Anybody can produce quality if he lowers his production rate. That is not what it’s all about. Statistical thinking and statistical techniques are to aggressive production workers, foremen, and all the way through the company, a second language. In statistical control, you have a reproducible product hour after hour, day after day. And see how comforting that is to management, they now know what they can produce, they know what their costs are going to be.
• Normally, people expect miracles. Typical management thinks that they can just copy from other country’s best product—but they don't know what to copy
•  "What is the deviation trying to tell us about a process, about the people in the process" It was created that the basis for the control chart and the concept of a state of statistical control by carefully designed experiments. While it drew from pure mathematical statistical theories, it was understood that data from physical processes never produce a "normal distribution curve"
• It was discovered that observed deviation in manufacturing data did not always behave the same way as data in nature.  It was concluded that while every process displays deviation, some processes display controlled deviation that is natural to the process, while others display uncontrolled deviation that is not present in the process causal system at all times. It was renamed these distinctions "common cause" for chance causes and "special cause" for assignable causes.
• It was done so the focus would be placed on those responsible for doing something about the deviation, rather than the source of the deviation. It is top management's responsibility to address "common cause" deviation, and therefore it is management's responsibility to make improvements to the whole system. Because "special cause" deviation is assignable, workers, supervisors or middle managers that have direct knowledge of the assignable cause best address this type of specific intervention.
• Quality Circles "That's all window dressing. That's not fundamental. That's not getting at change and the transformation that must take place. Sure we have to solve problems. Certainly beat out the fire. Stamp out the fire and get nowhere. Stamp out the fires puts us back to where we were in the first place. Taking action on the basis of results without theory of knowledge, without theory of deviation, without knowledge about a system.
•  Anything goes wrong, do something about it, overreacting; acting without knowledge, the effect is to make things worse. With the best of intentions and best efforts, managing by results is, in effect, exactly the same, as while driving your automobile, keeping your eye on the rear view mirror, what would happen And that's what management by results is, keeping your eye on results."
•  "Knowledge is theory. We should be thankful if action of management is based on theory. Knowledge has sequential spread. Information is not knowledge. The world is drowning in information but is slow in acquisition of knowledge. There is no substitute for knowledge." This statement emphasizes the need for theory of knowledge.
•  "Uncertainty makes research predictable, but you still need proof to satisfy everyone else." It was referencing those sometimes impossible aspects of research.
• "The most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable but successful management must nevertheless take account of them.

Conclusions

Nuclear Market Change in Coming Years

The most important change in the nuclear market in coming years will be a move away from standard engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, under which providers construct the plant, but no more. Customers are now calling for more complex products which go beyond plant construction to include plant operation, staff training and help with establishing national nuclear legislation.  Nuclear Plant engineering design will need drastic management transformation to adjust to changing nuclear market and demand from other countries.

It was realized that many important things that must be managed couldn’t be measured. Both points are important such as: a) not everything of importance to management can be measured and, b) you must still manage those important things. Spend $30,000 training 15 people in a special skill. What's the advantage "You'll never know," the answer. "You'll never be able to measure it. Why did you do it Because you believed it would pay off the investment.  1t was often incorrectly quoted as saying, "You can't manage what you can't measure." In fact, it was stated that one of the six deadly diseases of management is running a company on visible figures without help.

Armand L. Rogado (alrogado@bechtel.com) 다른기사 보기