Monumental work cockups
Discussion
Tango13 said:
pingu393 said:
I agree. To be fair, most military equipment - even the "new" stuff is ancient in terms of what is available today.
You may consider a car you ordered in 2010 car to be old, but the chances are that a piece of military stuff that was procured in 2010 hasn't seen operational service yet. Billions are wasted ensuring the price paid is fully justified.
We had one drawing from 1910 or there abouts! You may consider a car you ordered in 2010 car to be old, but the chances are that a piece of military stuff that was procured in 2010 hasn't seen operational service yet. Billions are wasted ensuring the price paid is fully justified.
pingu393 said:
amancalledrob said:
FiF said:
Don't even ask me about rush work in the run-up to that little contratemps in the South Atlantic.
Hey, you remember that little contratemps in the South Atlantic? Anything go wrong there?
?. But that wasn't a cock-up, it was creative accounting. It's not just politicians who take advantage of the misery of others 
.To be fair, from what my Dad told me, I think CORPORATE was the way to do it. Just throw money and resources at it.
GRANBY was at the beginning of my MoD days and the place was a shambles, but it worked because money was thrown at the problem. It leads to massive spikes in spending, but is probably cheaper over the long term. It's the old cash-flow v. cost debate.
I was involved in TELIC and HERRICK and they tried to do it with a padlock on the wallet - and I believe men died because we weren't agile in procurement.
No obstacles to the manufacture were allowed, iirc the missiles were either Seacat or Tigercat, obsolete systems by the time of the Falklands war.
Le TVR said:
Many year ago the test lab I worked for was engaged by the High Court to act as expert witness in a building claim.
The building was a multistorey carpark in the centre of an East Sussex town.
Problem was that the floors were not lining up with the on/off ramps of the external structure. and the contractors had made good with extra concrete so everything lined up but the more floors they added, the gaps reappeared. Something was moving/settling.
County architect was suing the contractors who were suing the concrete company.
Job 1, was it moving? We set up scaffolding frames at each level with dial guages every metre and lorry loads of concrete cubes were delivered to each floor to simulate the normal working load. First dial guage I went to read was rotating at several RPM! It wasnt the only one as the next thing I heard was the Boss shouting "Everyone get the f
k out, NOW! Which we duly did and adjourned to the adjacent caf for coffee. Fortunately it was still standing in the afternoon after they got all the trucks of concrete off.
We proposed to the Architect to drill core samples through the pre-cast flooring slabs where they met the external stucture. Back the next day with all the drilling kit and few hours later we layed out the sample on the site office desk. Middle of the sample was a distinct white line and everyone asking WTF is that?
Sample back to lab for pyrolysis analysis then back to site to see Architect.
"Its polystyrene" Architect shouts something about 'incompetent aholes' and runs out the door.
Transpired that each pre-cast floor slab was delivered on a protective tray of expanded polystyrene and they had left this in place when they fitted each floor slab and its was being compressed as they built each next floor on top.
Architect made them demolish the whole carpark and start again, settled out of court, so we weren't told the final figure but well into 7 figures I'm sure.
Was the same company involved in this car park....? The building was a multistorey carpark in the centre of an East Sussex town.
Problem was that the floors were not lining up with the on/off ramps of the external structure. and the contractors had made good with extra concrete so everything lined up but the more floors they added, the gaps reappeared. Something was moving/settling.
County architect was suing the contractors who were suing the concrete company.
Job 1, was it moving? We set up scaffolding frames at each level with dial guages every metre and lorry loads of concrete cubes were delivered to each floor to simulate the normal working load. First dial guage I went to read was rotating at several RPM! It wasnt the only one as the next thing I heard was the Boss shouting "Everyone get the f
k out, NOW! Which we duly did and adjourned to the adjacent caf for coffee. Fortunately it was still standing in the afternoon after they got all the trucks of concrete off.We proposed to the Architect to drill core samples through the pre-cast flooring slabs where they met the external stucture. Back the next day with all the drilling kit and few hours later we layed out the sample on the site office desk. Middle of the sample was a distinct white line and everyone asking WTF is that?
Sample back to lab for pyrolysis analysis then back to site to see Architect.
"Its polystyrene" Architect shouts something about 'incompetent a
holes' and runs out the door.Transpired that each pre-cast floor slab was delivered on a protective tray of expanded polystyrene and they had left this in place when they fitted each floor slab and its was being compressed as they built each next floor on top.
Architect made them demolish the whole carpark and start again, settled out of court, so we weren't told the final figure but well into 7 figures I'm sure.
Edited by Le TVR on Thursday 20th October 10:11
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3829379/Ve...
Many years ago I accidently put through a first class letter without first checking the franking m/c had been re-set.
That letter was franked at £4.70! Cost at least £4.10 too much!!
I kept my job.
However, in 1984 as a lowly clerk I did overlook an instruction to re-insure a structure we built for Notcutts nursery in Suffolk. In the snow that winter it collapsed, and Notcutts asked us to honour the ten year guarantee the MD personally approved. It was the largest structure of it's kind the company had installed, but luckily not big enough to bankrupt us (maybe £30k worth).
I still kept my job.
Many years later I was involved in setting up an extrusion line, co-extruding a PVC outer with a lining of intumescent seal. Unfortunately the extruder ran too hot and kept making the carbon intumescent material react, filling the casing with useless foamed carbon (unless we ran it so slowly it would be quicker to infill by hand).
I lost my job on that one (walked away from car-crash company failure).
That letter was franked at £4.70! Cost at least £4.10 too much!!
I kept my job.
However, in 1984 as a lowly clerk I did overlook an instruction to re-insure a structure we built for Notcutts nursery in Suffolk. In the snow that winter it collapsed, and Notcutts asked us to honour the ten year guarantee the MD personally approved. It was the largest structure of it's kind the company had installed, but luckily not big enough to bankrupt us (maybe £30k worth).
I still kept my job.
Many years later I was involved in setting up an extrusion line, co-extruding a PVC outer with a lining of intumescent seal. Unfortunately the extruder ran too hot and kept making the carbon intumescent material react, filling the casing with useless foamed carbon (unless we ran it so slowly it would be quicker to infill by hand).
I lost my job on that one (walked away from car-crash company failure).
Not on the same scle as some of the postings on here but here goes.
I was working for the Post Office in the early 1980's, our usual storekeeper for the area was on holiday and the substitute ordered some toilet paper (the lovely shiny Izal stuff - with OHMS printed on each sheet!).
Unfortunately he thought he was ordering by the individual roll and not by the box of 144 rolls which arrived in a HUGE lorry.
The bloody stuff was stored in every available nook and cranny and I believe there was still some left when they closed the office earlier this year!
I was working for the Post Office in the early 1980's, our usual storekeeper for the area was on holiday and the substitute ordered some toilet paper (the lovely shiny Izal stuff - with OHMS printed on each sheet!).
Unfortunately he thought he was ordering by the individual roll and not by the box of 144 rolls which arrived in a HUGE lorry.
The bloody stuff was stored in every available nook and cranny and I believe there was still some left when they closed the office earlier this year!
The Don of Croy said:
Many years ago I accidently put through a first class letter without first checking the franking m/c had been re-set.
That letter was franked at £4.70! Cost at least £4.10 too much!!
I kept my job.
I was pissing about with a franking machine during my work experience at a brewery in Nottingham. I accidentally sent 3 letters through with £200 labels on them. Fortunately for me, nobody noticed, I stuck the proper ones with the right value over the top...That letter was franked at £4.70! Cost at least £4.10 too much!!
I kept my job.
Le TVR said:
Many year ago the test lab I worked for was engaged by the High Court to act as expert witness in a building claim.
The building was a multistorey carpark in the centre of an East Sussex town.
Problem was that the floors were not lining up with the on/off ramps of the external structure. and the contractors had made good with extra concrete so everything lined up but the more floors they added, the gaps reappeared. Something was moving/settling.
County architect was suing the contractors who were suing the concrete company.
Job 1, was it moving? We set up scaffolding frames at each level with dial guages every metre and lorry loads of concrete cubes were delivered to each floor to simulate the normal working load. First dial guage I went to read was rotating at several RPM! It wasnt the only one as the next thing I heard was the Boss shouting "Everyone get the fk out, NOW! Which we duly did and adjourned to the adjacent caf for coffee. Fortunately it was still standing in the afternoon after they got all the trucks of concrete off.
We proposed to the Architect to drill core samples through the pre-cast flooring slabs where they met the external stucture. Back the next day with all the drilling kit and few hours later we layed out the sample on the site office desk. Middle of the sample was a distinct white line and everyone asking WTF is that?
Sample back to lab for pyrolysis analysis then back to site to see Architect.
"Its polystyrene" Architect shouts something about 'incompetent aholes' and runs out the door.
Transpired that each pre-cast floor slab was delivered on a protective tray of expanded polystyrene and they had left this in place when they fitted each floor slab and its was being compressed as they built each next floor on top.
Architect made them demolish the whole carpark and start again, settled out of court, so we weren't told the final figure but well into 7 figures I'm sure.
Cock ups happen all too frequently with construction. I was on a site a couple of years ago which I am not allowed to talk about but basically the structural engineer designed the roof for a tv soap operas new studios for a lightweight panel roof, not the concrete roof that was constructed. After the steel frame started to look like it would collapse under the weight, the building had to be demolished and rebuilt causing a delay of nearly a year.The building was a multistorey carpark in the centre of an East Sussex town.
Problem was that the floors were not lining up with the on/off ramps of the external structure. and the contractors had made good with extra concrete so everything lined up but the more floors they added, the gaps reappeared. Something was moving/settling.
County architect was suing the contractors who were suing the concrete company.
Job 1, was it moving? We set up scaffolding frames at each level with dial guages every metre and lorry loads of concrete cubes were delivered to each floor to simulate the normal working load. First dial guage I went to read was rotating at several RPM! It wasnt the only one as the next thing I heard was the Boss shouting "Everyone get the f
k out, NOW! Which we duly did and adjourned to the adjacent caf for coffee. Fortunately it was still standing in the afternoon after they got all the trucks of concrete off.We proposed to the Architect to drill core samples through the pre-cast flooring slabs where they met the external stucture. Back the next day with all the drilling kit and few hours later we layed out the sample on the site office desk. Middle of the sample was a distinct white line and everyone asking WTF is that?
Sample back to lab for pyrolysis analysis then back to site to see Architect.
"Its polystyrene" Architect shouts something about 'incompetent a
holes' and runs out the door.Transpired that each pre-cast floor slab was delivered on a protective tray of expanded polystyrene and they had left this in place when they fitted each floor slab and its was being compressed as they built each next floor on top.
Architect made them demolish the whole carpark and start again, settled out of court, so we weren't told the final figure but well into 7 figures I'm sure.
Edited by Le TVR on Thursday 20th October 10:11
BIGDAI said:
Not on the same scle as some of the postings on here but here goes.
I was working for the Post Office in the early 1980's, our usual storekeeper for the area was on holiday and the substitute ordered some toilet paper (the lovely shiny Izal stuff - with OHMS printed on each sheet!).
Unfortunately he thought he was ordering by the individual roll and not by the box of 144 rolls which arrived in a HUGE lorry.
The bloody stuff was stored in every available nook and cranny and I believe there was still some left when they closed the office earlier this year!
Not quite a 'mistake' , but we had similar. I worked for a housing association in a small local office. We were approached by a national electricity supplier who had a scheme for giving away low energy lightbulbs to vunerable people and someone at that company decided it would be an easy way to distribute them by handing them over to social housing landlords. I picked up the phone call, thought it would be a good idea to accept the offer, told them our local office high street address then they asked how many tenants we had. I gave them the total number of houses owned by the main association (6000) and to my surprise, two days later we had a delivery of 48000 light bulbs. We had to close the one room office that day until we could arrange to redistribute them.I was working for the Post Office in the early 1980's, our usual storekeeper for the area was on holiday and the substitute ordered some toilet paper (the lovely shiny Izal stuff - with OHMS printed on each sheet!).
Unfortunately he thought he was ordering by the individual roll and not by the box of 144 rolls which arrived in a HUGE lorry.
The bloody stuff was stored in every available nook and cranny and I believe there was still some left when they closed the office earlier this year!
spikeyhead said:
Fortunately this had nothing to do with me
Repairs to the satellite cost $135 million
i don't know if it was this bit of kit, but my brother works for a company that supply a lot of kit to nasa and other agencies. clean room stuff the whole funny get up and all.Repairs to the satellite cost $135 million
anyway he was meant to be travelling somewhere to fix the fact that the parts they had supplied would not fit the kit it was designed for.
apparently a couple of nights before he got a call at home, and a one sided conversation went.
other end.
him: i'm not going what's happened.
him listening
him: how the f
k did they manage to drop it? it should be on a stand.him listening
him: it fell off the stand, why on earth did they tip it? wasn't it secured?
him listening
him: ok so i just come in monday as normal?
apparently not only was his trip delayed, when he finally got out there, the reason their kit wouldn't fit was that the kit it was being connected to hadn't been made to spec, about 1/2mm out and put the project and launch back another few weeks.
also not mine, but was lucky i wasn't in the job.
just before i went on holiday I went for a job interview at another bank (IT Dept), was the 2nd interview and at the end I was told the job offer would be posted and in my mail when i got back. they were happy to wait for me being on holiday.
so 2 days later sitting on a plane, the bbc world news came on, and they started 'Bearings, Britains oldest bank'
i say to the ex wife: my new employers
the bbc carry on : 'have gone bust'
me : oh f
k!thankfully i hadn't put in my resignation as the ex had suggested the day i worked before the holiday
FiF said:
Well I'm not sure about the point amancalledrob was trying to make and failed
Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear - I'm not sure which post you refer to but I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. Your post read like you had a lot more to share in the vein of MoD cock ups etc and I was just asking about that. Didn't want to cause offence or start an argument or anything 
Personally, after 18 odd years in IT, I've been fairly lucky - I've broken a couple of boxes whilst building them and had to start again, and once shutdown a test server only to find some plonker had installed a live DB on it and I had just kicked 30 odd people off ... but that's about the worst of it. I know someone who managed to shutdown the London stock exchange for a morning once ... he was just very unlucky as opposed to negligent.
Couple that spring to mind from my previous firm ....
An IT project was launched, that had no chance of success. We (the techies) even pointed this out.
It went ahead anyway
It failed
About 10 million pounds down the drain
Another involved a system that management would not pay to cluster (would have cost around 2 million) because, it can't fail in the way you describe.
It did ...
Critical system down for 48 hours at a loss of 4 - 5 million pounds.
A project to cluster it was signed off the following week
Couple that spring to mind from my previous firm ....
An IT project was launched, that had no chance of success. We (the techies) even pointed this out.
It went ahead anyway
It failed
About 10 million pounds down the drain
Another involved a system that management would not pay to cluster (would have cost around 2 million) because, it can't fail in the way you describe.
It did ...
Critical system down for 48 hours at a loss of 4 - 5 million pounds.
A project to cluster it was signed off the following week
Edited by mph999 on Thursday 20th October 14:31
amancalledrob said:
FiF said:
Well I'm not sure about the point amancalledrob was trying to make and failed
Sorry, I probably didn't make myself clear - I'm not sure which post you refer to but I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. Your post read like you had a lot more to share in the vein of MoD cock ups etc and I was just asking about that. Didn't want to cause offence or start an argument or anything It was really only that in time of war all the rules appeared to go out if the window in the cause of getting the job done, which I suppose one cannot grumble about. Despite a few all nighters sorting it out aiui the missiles we had a hand in didn't down a single plane during the conflict, though maybe they thwarted a few attacks. They were for low level attack protection in San Carlos water iirc, where Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were not effective for some reason.
mph999 said:
Another involved a system that management would not pay to cluster (would have cost around 2 million) because, it can't fail in the way you describe.
It did ...
Critical system down for 48 hours at a loss of 4 - 5 million pounds.
A project to cluster it was signed off the following week
A cluster costs £2 million? How come? It did ...
Critical system down for 48 hours at a loss of 4 - 5 million pounds.
A project to cluster it was signed off the following week
Edited by mph999 on Thursday 20th October 14:31
FiF said:
Ok think we got cross hobbled. No problems.
It was really only that in time of war all the rules appeared to go out if the window in the cause of getting the job done, which I suppose one cannot grumble about. Despite a few all nighters sorting it out aiui the missiles we had a hand in didn't down a single plane during the conflict, though maybe they thwarted a few attacks. They were for low level attack protection in San Carlos water iirc, where Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were not effective for some reason.
It was certainly an epic achievement, fighting a war so far from home and really on the aggressor's doorstep. I guess the 'ready, fire, aim' approach, where action is taken and then improved as necessary, is in those cases much preferable to the committee approach It was really only that in time of war all the rules appeared to go out if the window in the cause of getting the job done, which I suppose one cannot grumble about. Despite a few all nighters sorting it out aiui the missiles we had a hand in didn't down a single plane during the conflict, though maybe they thwarted a few attacks. They were for low level attack protection in San Carlos water iirc, where Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were not effective for some reason.
There were plenty of cockups though, eg
- Lots of confusion as to was actually in charge of what
- The subs not being in the same chain of command as the surface fleet
- One unit taking landing craft without the amphibious commander being notified so when he wanted them they weren't there
- Whoever signed off on a communication system that could only be used when the radar was off
1992- A lecturer of mine at uni was called out to an oil rig to solve a novel sea water injection pump vibration problem. It was vibrating so much all the other rotating machinery vibration alarms were going off as well, shutting the rig down. He said he would need to go on the rig and take his own measurements. The pump manufacturer’s engineers on the rig had proven themselves not capable of this task. He was informed he would need to do the offshore survival training etc. to go on the rig… which the major oil company hadn’t got time for. A figure of £3m/day loss was quoted.
The point was made to him that the oil company (and HM Treasury) were losing so much revenue, they would ask the Navy to sail him there or fly him out on a Sea King from the mainland- which they did. All to get round the offshore survival training requirement issue.
I don’t think he impressed the pump manufacturer or the engineers on the rig by telling them any one of his machine design students could have solved the problem for them.
The point was made to him that the oil company (and HM Treasury) were losing so much revenue, they would ask the Navy to sail him there or fly him out on a Sea King from the mainland- which they did. All to get round the offshore survival training requirement issue.
I don’t think he impressed the pump manufacturer or the engineers on the rig by telling them any one of his machine design students could have solved the problem for them.
I work in Corporate Security, when someone fks up we tend to have to stand there as a visible presence to make sure it looks like someone is doing something. I have a few amazing cock ups that i cannot talk about.
However, it's a small industry and things i know to have happened that other companies have assisted with.
These are the slightly more amusing/costly ones, the most monumental cockups i know of are actually mostly quite small things with very tragic endings. I am aware of a few where a simple things have had awful results.
Taping down a pressure switch to keep a traffic light green has lead to a death.
A falsified maintenance log lead to a colleague getting severe burns when a boiler exploded.
A couple of times where check calls weren't made and people weren't found until it was too late to save them.
ks up we tend to have to stand there as a visible presence to make sure it looks like someone is doing something. I have a few amazing cock ups that i cannot talk about. However, it's a small industry and things i know to have happened that other companies have assisted with.
- After migrating their entire EMEA access list onto a new server a £8/hour Officer deleted the entire access list for a Bank when they pressed the "delete all" option that had been left open after the engineers had finished configuring it. Every door for this bank, including Datacentre entrances and secure networked money handling was left on "open" for 3 hours whilst they desperately fixed it. That officer got moved away from Access Control, but kept his job.
- The workmen next door to a site knocking down a supporting wall that lead to the demolition of half of a disaster recovery data centre, the re-build cost was huge, partly due to normal DC costs, partly as it was their only back up and everything had to be migrated ASAP.
- A floor of a large office being used out of hours to host parties with copious amounts of coke and hookers, mostly ignored as it was seen as a reward for their hardest working staff until new management arrived. The the st splattered all over the place.
- The evacuation of a Canary Wharf trading floor, in trading hours, after a control room manager forgot to put the system in test before doing the weekly checks.
- An officer got woken up by the fire alarm, he assumed it was a fault and rather than check he reset the alarm, turned off the smoke heads in that section and went back to sleep. By the time the other alarms went off it was too late and the building was a total loss, camera footage was saved offsite and lead to a lot of swearing.
These are the slightly more amusing/costly ones, the most monumental cockups i know of are actually mostly quite small things with very tragic endings. I am aware of a few where a simple things have had awful results.
Taping down a pressure switch to keep a traffic light green has lead to a death.
A falsified maintenance log lead to a colleague getting severe burns when a boiler exploded.
A couple of times where check calls weren't made and people weren't found until it was too late to save them.
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