The Professional Engineer - The Consultancy Practice - Part One - The Foundation

 The Professional Engineer - The Consultancy Practice - Part One - The Foundation

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيْم

Salam

 

I'm not perfect. Allah SWT is Perfection.

My mistakes here are of my own. What I am writing here is out of good intentions, insha Allah.

Consider our own creation. The human body. SubhanAllah, it's just amazing. 

The Architect, Structural Engineer and MEP Engineer is Allah SWT. The body, mind and soul are nothing but Allah SWT's creation. 

To give us some perspective, can you dictate the processes involved in enjoying a plate of lemang and chicken rendang? 

From the sight and fragrance of the dish on a plate, the delivery process from the plate to the mouth, in the name of Allah SWT, the chewing process, the swallowing process, the digestion process and how the nutrients are absorbed and delivered all around the body and how the waste material is processed? 

Can we human beings tell our bodies how to carry out those processes? Like how to set the blood pressure so that it's adequate to deliver the absorbed nutrient to the cells, tissues, organs and systems that require it? Plus the amount of oxygen adequate to carry out the metabolism process to convert chemical energy to kinetic energy, for instance? 

Yes. We take these things for granted because it happens automatically.

It happens by the Will of Allah SWT. 

Ask diabetics who are injecting insulin and many of them would probably tell you how they wish that they don't have to rely on external insulin should they have a healthy, functioning pancreas to produce the insulin itself or the condition of their bodies which renders their own insulin effective on the cells. 

Notwithstanding the title of this post, what i am getting at here is to share with you the above perspective so that we all shall be conscious of Allah SWT in our daily lives, insha Allah, including our pursuit of a career in the consultancy practice. 

For us to do what we do in the practice, just like anything else we do in this life, as ibadah towards The Almighty. 

Let's start our day with the Fajr or Subuh solat. Let's take a bit of time after our solat to ask Allah SWT for forgiveness for we can't be dead sure that we have not committed any wrongs or sins until the time we performed our Fajr solat. Furthermore, by asking forgiveness from Allah SWT, we humble ourselves to The Almighty, The Sustainer, The Creator and The Forgiver. 

Then we humbly ask for guidance from Allah SWT. Guidance for our conduct as a servant of Allah SWT and many other aspects of our lives, including becoming a consulting engineer, regardless of what level of expertise we may have attained, by the Will of Allah SWT. 

Ask from Allah SWT guidance so that we'll be rightfully guided to learn the ropes, either from past projects, codes of practices, books and manuals and/or seeking advice from fellow engineers who have gained more knowledge and experience, insha Allah. Sure, seminars and workshops too. 

It is kinda hard to become an engineer who knows everything there is to know about engineering. Consider the engineers who developed the Halon 1301 system in the past. It's a good agent to extinguish fire but it was eventually banned because it was discovered that the chemical has an adverse effect on the environment, particularly the ozone layer. 

The engineers then developed the clean agent systems which do not bother the ozone layer but it's not perfect. There's GWP concerns. There're rooms for improvement and there are scientists and engineers who are conducting R&D to find a more safer agent that does the job and also have lesser destructive effect on the environment, insha Allah.

It's a continuous process, right? 

Similarly with the gaining of knowledge in the consultancy practice. 

What one need to know, basically has already been posted in this blog, which insha Allah, i hope can give us an insight on the topics to learn, but how about a bit of a summary here, yes?

As we, the building services M&E engineer shall be designing the systems for a building, we shall have to try our level best to understand the building which we are designing the systems for.

Lean the architecture drawings. Learn the C&S drawings also.

Basically here's what we're providing as building services, which depends on the nature of the building...

Cold water and waste water plumbing systems.. from a single bib tap cold water plumbing and the wastewater plumbing which may require a single floor trap to a gully trap - for a simple warehouse to a complex plumbing system which requires cold water, hot water, harvested rainwater, kitchen waste water and greywater processing in a GBI-Platinum hotel tower.

Fire protection system. A single 6kg dry powder fire extinguisher and a self-contained smoke detector in a simplest building that requires such items - on one end of the spectrum - to - well, shall i say the sky is the limit? 

Indoor environmental system - ACMV - from a single 1 hp DX split unit on one end - to the complex thermal storage system for hospital complex like the Sungai Buloh Hospital, on the other. Not to mention the mechanical ventilation systems which are associated with fire protection and life safety - the pressurization and smoke extract systems. 

Building Automation system, in my professional opinion is a must when we consider energy efficiency management as well as the maintenance of the other M&E systems in good operating condition to achieve the level of efficiency and performance that we, the designers intend to have. 

Of course there are many other systems such as lifts, escalators, gas, swimming pool filtration, medical gas, pneumatic tube - which i have mentioned in my previous blog posts. 

Last but not least, Power, Lighting and the Extra Low-voltage systems plus Lightning protection and Earthing. 

The consultancy practice may not be something that we desire to pursue as the first choice. However, for those who have the passion in the design of the systems involved and hoping to see the fruit of his/her labour in say, a hospital project - thanking Allah SWT for providing the guidance in our designs so that ailing fellow human being may be well treated by the medical professionals, with the aid of the systems we designed, insha Allah. 

Be humble in asking for assistance. Be courteous with fellow professionals. Be diligent with everyone but maintain our professionalism - guided by the code of ethics. 

It is not my intent to present you with solutions to complex engineering problems. Should you have anything you wish to share with me, i'll do my level best, insha Allah - to guide you to a solution. 

Being an engineer, with the required knowledge, insha Allah, you'll arrive to a practical solution with the minimum cost possible. 

Wassalam,

Peace,

FbI