Response to case study scenario 1

In the following, I will outline my concerns over the three failed tests from last week’s batch of USB flash memory drives. This matter has been bought to the attention of the manager who supervises our safety testing group however I believe his choice, which was to disregard the information I put forward without thorough thought being put into the decision, was the wrong one. More needs to be done to resolve this.

To begin with I am not happy that the delivery was made before the report for the safety tests was reviewed. What is the purpose of having a procedure for Quality Control if when we do find out that something has gone wrong, the products have already been dispatched. This is something I feel very strongly about as it undermines the work we all do here making sure customers always receive the best we have to give them. The customer must be put first.

This can be illustrated by the position we are now in. When I received my copy of the report and I looked over it I found that of the 200 tests, 3 tests of power consumption failed. Without going into the details these tests are safety critical and failing them is a potential fire hazard. They should never have been sent out to our customer. It is like a car being sold with a 1.5% fail rate on the brakes; would you be happy owning a car like that?

Action on this is needed urgently as any delays could lead to serious problems for us all later on putting the reputation of the company in jeopardy. Other well recognised companies have been put in similar circumstances where the products, already in the consumer’s hands, have had safety critical problems discovered with them and they have made recalls. Sony issued a laptop battery recall when 40 batteries were known to overheat or catch fire out of 100,000 (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/sony-recalls-100000-laptop-batteries-981173.html).

When that happened I was working in retail at a computer superstore in which the recall affected many customers however most were happy that they ended up with a solution that kept them and their belongings safe rather than angry with the inconvenience. Sony dealt with the situation so should we.

I am aware that the cost of organising and processing a recall during today’s current climate is not something financially we would want to do. However, this could save us legal battles in the future which are not what we need. Cutting costs and ignoring our own safety checks could put human life at risk. As I have already said puts the company’s reputation in jeopardy if we wait to see what happens. Stating this again hopefully highlights the importance of taking responsible action to fix the problem before anything goes out of our hands.

I personally have already taken this to our Head of Operations who agrees with me and is going through the motions to organise a recall. This is little more I can do as a Junior Engineer, I look at the results, analyse them and tell the people who need to know what to do next. I will be chasing this up next week to make sure things are getting done but it is now pretty much out of my hands.