Answer the questions Assignment

requirement placed on an engineering technician to maintain registration with ECSA

Question 1 – Professionalism in Engineering and Technology
1.1 Describe the requirements placed on an engineering technician to maintain his
professional registration with ECSA. Also describe the system of professional
development, as ECSA designed and implemented a system of continuous
professional development.
1.2 Describe your own road towards becoming a professional engineering technician
after the completion of your Diploma . How
will this change after completion of the Advanced Diploma?

Question 2 – Ethical Issue Recognition and Behaviour
2.1 Why do you think that an engineer should act professionally and ethically and
exercise judgment and take responsibility within his/her own limits of competence?
2.3 Below is a case study of a young engineer, read it through and answer the
questions below.
A young industrial engineer, on active duty in the military, tries to eliminate a
support that is purchased with every gyroscope. The support allows for quick
disconnect/connect. The gyroscope is used in three different aircraft, the support
is used in only one of the three. The aircraft where it is used is no longer in
production, so the supports are no longer needed.
The manufacturers of the other two aircraft, just stores the supports. They can
neither dispose of them nor return them to the government. The “system” will not
allow the engineer to delete the base from the aircraft specification. He then
submits a “suggestion” through the formal Suggestion System for productivity
improvements. The engineer receives a call from a staff member in the office that
handles suggestions. Military suggesters cannot receive monetary awards, so the
staff member suggests that the officer add an engineering not in military, but in
civil service, to the suggestion with the arrangement that the civil service engineer
split the monetary award which he is entitled to with the officer. The annual savings
for suggestion amounted to R1.2 million per year. The top award the officer can
receive is dinner for two at the officers’ club. Explain what the young engineer
should do in this situation according to the ECSA code of conduct? (State the part
of the code of conduct that is applicable to this situation).

Question 3 – Behaviour, Responsibility and Accountability
You are working as a safety officer at a company that manages the disposal of hazardous
waste. All of the safety procedures have been implemented according to industry
standards. An overhead crane was used, during your morning coffee break, to move a
decommissioned tanker from the eastern end of the hanger to the western side of the
hanger. At that same time, another contractor was using a boom lift to install new
overhead lights. The contractor ignored the warning siren of the overhead crane and
continued his work. The contractor got trapped between the control panel and the
guardrails of the boom lift. The overhead crane operator realised that there is a problem
and hit the emergency stop button of the overhead crane. Your colleagues were quick to
act and managed to free the contractor. He was airlifted to hospital and suffered fractures
to his spine and neck.
3.1 Who is responsible for this workplace accident?
3.2 How could this accident have been prevented?

Question 3 – Behaviour, Responsibility and Accountability
You are working as a safety officer at a company that manages the disposal of hazardous
waste. All of the safety procedures have been implemented according to industry
standards. An overhead crane was used, during your morning coffee break, to move a
decommissioned tanker from the eastern end of the hanger to the western side of the
hanger. At that same time, another contractor was using a boom lift to install new
overhead lights. The contractor ignored the warning siren of the overhead crane and
continued his work. The contractor got trapped between the control panel and the
guardrails of the boom lift. The overhead crane operator realised that there is a problem
and hit the emergency stop button of the overhead crane. Your colleagues were quick to
act and managed to free the contractor. He was airlifted to hospital and suffered fractures
to his spine and neck.
3.1 Who is responsible for this workplace accident?
3.2 How could this accident have been prevented?
Question 4 – Workplace Health and Safety
Deidre Kelly is a manufacturing plant operative in her sixties. As she was struggling to
push an equipment trolley at work, she tore ligaments in her knee. She was off work for
fifteen weeks in total and still has a pronounced limp. She tells her story.
I have been with this company for over twenty-five years now and I’ve been doing the
same job there for over twenty years. The job involves pushing large trolleys loaded with
equipment to designated areas where they are steam cleaned. The trolleys are stainless
steel and a good size. They are about 1.8 square meters. When the trolleys are loaded
with equipment to be cleaned, they weigh about 190 kg each.
So, when I came to work on that particular day in 2005, it was to do a job I was very
experienced at and had been doing for a long time. Now these trolleys are like the
supermarket ones in that if you get one that has a dodgy wheel, it is not easy to control.
You end up forcing the thing to go where you want it to go. Normally the trolleys at work
are fine but the one I had to push that day had a dodgy wheel.
We always work in pairs and that day Jenny and I had one of these trolleys each. We
had to take them to the cleaning area about fifty yards away. So, there I was pushing
and pulling the trolley and it was fighting me all the way. I was having to use my weight
and the weight of the trolley to control its direction. So, it was a fairly physical matter to
make sure the trolley did not hit other fixtures and fittings along the way.
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I was close to leaving the trolley in its designated area and it just needed a couple more
pushes and pulls to finish the job. So, I grabbed the trolley again leaned into it and went
to push it. Then my right knee just gave way underneath me. I fell forward against the
trolley. My right leg collapsed as if the knee was not there and I had a very painful and
sharp stabbing pain in my knee. I shouted to Jenny and she waited for me as I tried to
put some weight on the leg. But that was no good. The pain was too much, and I had to
take all weight on my other leg.
I still had a couple of yards to go to where I was to leave the trolley, so I kept on going. I
sort of hobbled on as I pushed the trolley those last few yards. I did not think I had done
anything serious, so I hobbled back with Jenny to where my workstation was. On the way
back I was holding onto anything that would give me support like handrails, window ledges
and furniture. It was still painful when I got back to my station but at least I knew there
was a chair there and I could sit and rest the knee.
I went to sit in the chair and as soon as I did, I let out an unmerciful scream of pain. The
front of the chair had dug into the back of my knee and it was extremely painful. I stayed
in the chair for a few minutes to get my composure back but the pain in my knee was still
at me. A few of the others came over to see how I was, and I just stayed in my chair. My
lunch break was a few minutes away, so I decided to wait for that and then go to see the
company nurse.
When lunch arrived, I began to hobble my way to the nurse’s office, and she made a
doctor’s appointment for me that day at four o’clock. I then took some painkillers and I
waited back at my station in my chair. I rang my daughter and told her what had happened
to me. She came to collect me in her car and together we went to see the company
doctor who is based in town.
The GP examined me which was again painful as he started to twist and pull at my leg.
He prescribed painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. He also told me to stay off work
for the next two days and the weekend before going back to work. That weekend the
pain was still there, and my knee had swollen up noticeably. I was not able for work on
the Monday, so I went back to my GP. He sent me straight to hospital and rang them to
inform them I was arriving.
At the hospital I was diagnosed with ligament damage and given more painkillers. They
told me to rest for at least two to three weeks at home and I was instructed not to put any
weight on my knee for that time. Those two to three weeks turned out to be four weeks
before I could even stand again. After that month I could walk a good bit but only with a
pronounced limp. It was fifteen weeks before I could go back to work again.
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I was in pain for a long time. I was on painkillers continually for the first month after the
accident. Finally, after that month, the amount of pain lessened, and I took fewer tablets
as a result. The pain is not as bad now, but I am still taking painkillers on and off.
During those weeks off work, I went for an MRI scan. The orthopaedic surgeon told me
that I had torn the ligaments very badly on the outside of my knee. I had also torn them
at the back of my knee but not as badly. He said I was lucky they had not snapped. He
also told me it could be at least another six months before the ligaments would be fully
healed.
Even though I had been attending a physiotherapist and had acupuncture, the healing
has been slow. It is now seven months after the accident and I’m still limping. The worst
of it though was the sheer and absolute boredom at home. For nearly four months I was
off work and I was driven to near despair by being cooped up in the house.
Before the accident I made sure to keep myself fit by walking and swimming. I would
walk three miles every day except Sunday. I would go swimming once a week. All that
has gone now. Any physical exercise and my knee swell up. So, I just have to wait till
the knee heals up before I can get out and about again.
I put on two and a half stone in weight when I was off work. I just found there was nothing
to do all day, so I started to pick at sweets, chocolates, cakes, and the like. I often thought
that if I had time off, I would be able to do so many things. But the reality was that with
my knee injury, I could do very little.
The housework is still a problem to me if I have to stay on my feet for a long time. I cannot
use the vacuum cleaner at all on account of not being able to push it forwards, without
hurting my knee. On Sundays I sit over the cooker in a highchair to do the dinner. I am
now thinking about my nephew’s wedding in August and how I will not be able to dance
at the reception.
At work I now have a helper as I am not able for the same amount of effort as before.
She is with me part time to give me a hand with the trolleys. I am still limping, and I just
have to wait until I get better. I could have another MRI scan, but that is not going make
me heal any quicker, so I do not think I will bother.
So now my GP and physio have allowed me back to light walking for exercise. I will walk
for up to fifteen minutes once or twice a week. Any more than that and I could damage
the ligaments again. At this stage I have to say I am just fed up with it all. Completely
and utterly fed up. I just want my knee healed up so I can get my life back.
4.1 Explain what could have been done/planned to prevent this accident?
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4.2 Judge whether Deidre can sue the company for negligence?
4.3 Propose policies/procedures to be put in place to prevent accidents like this one
to occur again?
4.4 Point out in which ways did this accident affected Deidre Kelly’s life?
4.5 Identify the possible costs to the employee and the employer with regards to this
accident.