HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY YOU MIGHT NEED TO STUDY ETHICS?

Ever wonder what the world would be like if they didn't insist that you be ethical as an engineer?

Examples of how businesses do this in advertising…

Fast Food  This is what you're shown you will get if you purchase the product…

What do you REALLY get?

Frozen Meals

What do you REALLY get? Dang! Someone ate 2/3 of it before I even got it open.

Engineering Ethics  If engineers didn't have to take a 3 hour course in ethics during their college career, pass an ethics exam before becoming registered, or take 15 hours of continuing education each year, one hour of which had to cover ethics, would they follow ethical practices?

Take home builders for example…

Here’s what you would be told…

But you may end up with this…

Your assignment is to write a response advising your engineering friend who is a bit of a pickle at work.

John, the quality engineer  John was asked to review a new computer part that is going to be manufactured in five different locations around the world. He is asked to try to figure out how to save some money as the part is just a little bit too expensive to make at this time. However, research of their customers indicate there is a strong market for the product.

Plant Management  Two of the plant managers get together and figure out a way to replace part of the product with a much cheaper material, making the product more affordable to manufacture.  John’s boss asks him to ‘sign off’ on the modifications because company protocol requires a corporate quality engineer to approve all new products before it can go into manufacturing.

John’s Analysis  YIKES!  Quality significantly goes down with the cheaper part. It is more likely to break on the consumer in the first year of use.  John reports this to his boss.

Boss’s Response  I don’t care.  We need this product and we have insurance to cover us if we need to do a major recall.  Sign it tomorrow, John.  We need to go into production by the end of next month.  We really need to go forward with this to keep two plants open.

What should John do?  As a professional engineer, John has a duty to the public to ensure that quality and safe products are made available.  Would we want a Civil Engineer cutting costs on a bridge we drove every day to school or work?  Take the worksheet and discuss this information in a small group of 2 to 5 students.  Write some bullets of important information including expected consequences for anything you suggest to John.

Engineering Ethics