Management and the Technology Professional – B302

Case study answer 2

If a step along the critical path has been missed this will stop the entire process. As supervising engineer the step that was missed in this case is the final testing step. This step has great importance because it is the final phase before the product gets put onto the market. Having products that are not thoroughly tested could have negative results on the business. If in an event of the product failing to meet its designed purpose a product recall would have to take place. This will increase cost and result in the company losing its reputation. Therefore I would see to it that step 6 would have to be done thoroughly before any further steps are taken as quickly as possible. Depending on how crucial the missed test was step 7 can be started along with continuing to complete.

The missed step brings two aspects accountability and responsibility into view. As acting supervisor of this step it is my responsibility to ensure that the test s are performed correctly. Although does being responsible also mean that I am also accountable for what happened? The technicians in control of running the test should have completed them as it was their tasks to do so. Although it is by no means a bad decision to go back and redo the step missed. However if we are to redo the step that was missed it will still take the same required time to complete as before. If step 7 only takes one day step 6’s time allocation of 4 day would clearly overrun past step 7 into other steps that follow.

The primary factors that would dictate to me which action to take would be the path that would be in the best interest of what was being made. If I choose a path that would lead to a shorter solution to fixing such a problem but in turn could not guarantee a particular level of quality I would see that decision as a failure. Such a rushed action could have negative consequences.
The impact of quality testing not being implemented is that we won’t be able to differentiate between the performances of the semiconductors that are produced. Final testing shows a detailed insight of the semiconductors capabilities without this they cannot be categorized if need be. There is a clear difference between a onetime mistake and a long term continuous mistake. The long term mistake will be a reoccurring event which over a long period of time will build up and have significant damages to the company. A onetime mistake may have a large impact at the moment however if anticipated properly future appearances of such a mistake can be foreshadowed.