| 10 | |
| 11 | For instance, the Engineer who specifies the pump is concerned first about its capacity, and whether or not the material is appropriate to the service, and then about it’s physical envelope dimensions and weight. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The Constructor is also interested in weight, but only marginally interested in it’s physical dimensions (at least until something doesn’t fit). But it is very interested in delivery schedule. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The purchasing agent is professionally interested that all of the engineer’s requirements are met in whatever is purchased, but treats the property values, more-or-less as text strings. For instance the tag number 32-P-101A is treated as a single text string including the dashes, but the engineer wants to deal with all the individual pieces (Plant 32, Equipment type “P”, Sequence number 101, Spare “A”). |
| 16 | |
| 17 | The manufacturer is interested in dimensions, but to a far greater level of precision, as well as the precise chemical composition of the material. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Standards and regulatory bodies are interested in things that will make the pump blow up and kill people. This includes physical properties, but they want different levels of detail. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | The Owner-Operator is marginally interested in the physical properties (after all, the pump is there, and it is operating), but is more interested in maintenance schedules and the availability of spare parts. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | All of these differences are reflected in different data structures with subtle differences in meaning of even common terms. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | |
| 26 | |
| 27 | |