’The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42’, was a phrase coined by the late Douglas Adams, author of ’The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ and the ‘42’ joke is probably more famous than the actual novel. Maybe its coincidence; maybe there is a deeper meaning to it; but last week I found myself revising the number of parameters I could include to adequately describe a vertical in-line pump with an integrated frequency drive -you guessed it, I ended on 42 parameters. Stunned at this revelation it got me thinking over a discussion that keeps popping up, that a project often starts out with generic components; and it is not until after the design stage(s) that it gets swapped or enriched with manufacturer specific data.
The argument I often hear is that this is to keep the specifications open and not show preference to a given brand of components – and for legal compliance reasons during tender (or that non-generic content does…