Response to case study scenario 1

The best way to deal with this problem is to recall the batch. As I am only a junior engineer I do not have the authority to make the final decision on this case, and so I will go to the head manager as soon as I had an opportunity, and talk to them about this problem, telling them what I found in the safety report and explain why recalling would be the best solution. Afterwards I would write what I had found in a report that I could give to the manager afterwards and also to head supervisors at the company, so I could find many people to start sorting this problem out quickly before any problems occur. I believe it would be in my best interest not to hide this information so I am protected from any legal problems.

• Personal – with a USB flash drive, it could be put anywhere from a USB port hidden behind the computer, to the one on the side of a laptop on someone’s lap. Because of this it is important that it will not catch fire as it might get noticed too late and the fire has become too big, or it could burn someone’s leg. I do not have personal experience in selling potentially faulty products, however I have bought products that have not lasted as long as they said they would on the packet or did not work when I tried them, like light bulbs, DVD’s or timers. These weren’t serious faults but if there had been a more dangerous problem like catching fire then I would be less trusting of this company and careful not to buy anything from them again.
• Ethical – knowing about this will put the company into a bad position as the client could sue the company for not being told of this problem when he got the batch, the code of conduct states to “Treat customers fairly, openly and honestly” and also “Maintain the highest possible standards of integrity in business relationships with suppliers.” from “http://www.prudential.co.uk/prudential-plc/cr/managementpolicies/codeofconduct/” and this would not be right and would not maintain the level of trust between the producer and consumer which is essential especially when this is a very important client.
• Financial – if the product is recalled there will be a smaller financial risk of getting sued.
• Dell case study - This site: “http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/aug/16/money.shopping“ shows how Dell recalled all their batteries as in rare cases some have overheated causing a fire risk, and Dell believed that the safest way to deal with this problem was to recall all the batteries. There is a reference to other companies who have had similar problems and decided on the same thing, Microsoft had to recall Xbox power cables and apple had to recall batteries on their newest laptops. From this evidence I conclude that most companies believe this is the safest option, to protect their clients and keep the bond of trust and reputation.

Possible alternative views:
• The iPod Nano, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-531788/Apple-iPod-probe-Nano-shoots-sparks-recharging.html from this site it is seen that apple did not decide to recall its products even though they were a fire hazard, although most of the cases were less severe, only producing sparks with no injuries, however they were lucky and it is not a good idea when it could be putting lives of people at risk.
• The financial gain of the product would be affected if the product were not to get recalled as this would save some money and time in recalling the product and interrupting the schedule of this company, also the percentage that could potentially fail is only 1.5% which is not much and if they could get exchanged then this would be cost effective overall. However, if any of the USB flash drives do catch fire without anyone putting it out quick enough, there could develop larger financial problems for the client, and the company might get sued to pay for damages which might become more than the initial cost of recalling the product would have been.
• My safety manager said to ignore the problem, and he has had several years of experience to get to his position, but one person’s opinion should not be the deciding factor, and therefore this is not enough support on its own to ignore the problem.