ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Costly Mistakes

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My most costly mistake... a few years ago, I did some technical drawings installing a lot of fiber optic cable. I used our standard cable length estimation technique as usual, but neglected to consider the condition of the cableways or the propensity of this particular installation team to waste vast quantities of trunk for no apparent reason despite clear knowledge of how short they were. To make matters worse, this was all specialty long-lead-time stuff that we ended up having to haggle and buy from a partner/competitor who did NOT want to sell it to us. Ended up with a shortfall of about $1 million worth of fiber optic work until it was all said and done. It's amazing- hundreds of sheets of meticulously accurate drawings, but make one tiny $1 million error on the material list and catch nothing but hell for it! Took me a long time to live down that one! Luckily for me it was a high dollar job, and there was some griping but it paled in comparison to some OTHER problems on that job, so I never really caught much back from it except from the other engineers

Also, on the same job, I made a copy/paste error and was 1 number off on the part# on material list- accidentally ordered 6,000 of the wrong part. Was supposed to be $5 end caps, but accidentally put the number for tee couplings, which ran about $50 apiece. oops! We were able to fix that one though, heh.

Not an electrical error, but one time in the Air Force, I ordered a part for the 30mm gun on the A-10 aircraft. The part was valued at about $40,000.

A few days later I was called on the carpet by the Bird Colonel of Supply who wanted to know why I was ordering an entire gun system, valued at around $1.6 million, for a plane that already had a gun!!

After a lot of yelling and screaming involving my chief, my squadron commander, and the 2-star General Numbered Air Force commander (who BTW was a great guy and big movie buff; I became one of his favs for how well I ran the show at the base theatre) it was determined that the part number I had requested was off by one digit.

Why? The card file of part numbers, prepared by the Supply boss' own staff, was wrong!!

The ultimate outcome was a day off work for me, a Supply Colonel who was almost shipped off to a far away resort, and endless hours for him and his staff to go over every single card file on the base!!

Oh, yeah, and the best perk of all was a free steak and lobster dinner for two at the Officer's club, drinks included. When I got the call from the boss of the Officer's Mess, I reminded him I was an enlisted man, he said don't worry. I asked why, he said he wasn't allowed to say.

The mystery was solved a week later, when the General saw me on the flightline and asked if I had enjoyed the dinner. I told him yes, he said next time I see the Supply Colonel to thank him!!

Yep, part of the Supply Colonel's fine was the dinner for chewing me out for no reason.

I was very lucky to have great commanders during my time in the military.

Made lots of mistakes, not to many costly ones. Been thru 2 ceilings and pulled one suspended ceiling down on myself when i came off a 7 step ladder, office was full of lovely ladies all very concerned for my welfare, I was embarrassed to the max
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OA

OK here's one more from me. My dad and I were installing an outlet in a wall for a new window A/C. We got the hole cut in the panelling, and since we dont have a drill bit long enough to reach the bottom plate, we used a huge manual drill. Well, it went through WAY too easy. Needless to say, there's now a caulk spot in our aluminum siding. We decided to drill up from the crawlspace instead.

Ian A.

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 08-19-2006).]

One thing that springs to mind here.
When I was an Apprentice Electrician, I was asked to measure the run from the pole, down a long driveway, under a cattle-stop and across the driveway.
This was "on the way past" on the way to another job.
All well and good, I aced that one, or so I thought.
I'd left out the length that ran up the pole.
It was 18ft too short and with a cut-to-length service from the suppliers 100km away.......
Boy did I get a roasting about that.

I've been pretty careful myself.Never been thru an attic yet.I have reeked havoc on a microwave and a copier with the bastard leg.That's about it though.

[This message has been edited by electure (edited 08-23-2006).]

I am not sure if I want my name on this one, but a few years back I was caught up on my own work and so I was helping out a Dam (Civil) Engineer on one of his projects installing a cap on an old timber dam. He mentioned it was like putting a gold cap on a rotting tooth. Well, my name ended up on 4 of the 6 drawings (for drafting) on a dam that catastrophically failed. Only a few million dollars involved. I am glad I was not any closer to that project.