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64

Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2016

www.read-wca.com

Jörg Bör

CABX Cable Expert Dipl-Ing

Aachen

Germany

Tel

: +49 163 439 1964

Email

:

info@cabx.de

To protect people’s health in case of fire it is widely

required to use halogen free, low smoke materials for

buildings including indoor cabling. This is mandatory in

public premises but also recommended in residential

areas.

5 Conclusions

Due to cultural differences the focus of fire protection in

America is to reduce the probability of fire, but in Europe

mainly the dimensions of possible health injuries and

material damages are to be controlled.

Due to these differences in fire protection strategies there

are wide differences in technical standards, requirements,

and specifications for cables as well as for other

construction components regarding fire performance.

The European approach follows the theory of diverse

redundancy. Even if the requirements to each single

parameter for cable fire performance are lower, there is a

much better protection with less effort in total.

Different fire protection strategies are related to

intercultural differences. To sell a product in a region it

is not only necessary to meet all specifications but to

understand the needs and fears of humans living there.

Just by addressing these aspects it is possible to convince

potential customers of the advantages a product offers.

Thus cultural relativity has to be taken into account in

worldwide business. Cross-cultural awareness is an

important skill in global product management.

6 Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Prof Dr Armin Wittmann from Trier

University of Applied Sciences for providing information

regarding risk management.

Nicolai Bör from GIZ (German Association for International

Cooperation) for giving an increased understanding of

intercultural differences and their effects on the B2B

business.

ICYE (International Christian Youth Exchange) and its

national sub-organisations whose activities intensified the

experience of cross-cultural awareness.

7 References

[1]

G Hofstede, “Management Scientists Are Human” University of

Limburg, The Netherlands Management Science, Vol 40, No 1, (Jan

1994)

[2]

C Chapman, S Ward, “Project Risk Management: Processes,

Techniques, and Insights”, 2

nd

Ed, John Wiley & Sons Ltd (2003)

[3]

Robin E McDermott, Raymond J Mikulak, Michael R Beauregard, “The

Basics of FMEA”, 2

nd

Ed, Taylor & Francis Group LLC (2009)

[4]

Society for Risk Analysis (SRA);

www.sra.org

[5]

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;

http://en.wikipedia.org

[6]

European Commission: “Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 9

th

March 2011 laying down

harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products and

repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC”; OJ L 88 of 4

th

April 2011

Paper courtesy of the 63

rd

IWCS Technical Symposium,

Providence, Rhode Island, USA, November 2014.