Response to case study scenario 1

As a Junior engineer responsible for safety testing I have a responsibility to ensure that the USB flash drives have been fully tested and any problems identified have been documented and reported so a resolution can be found. With this responsibility my decision would be to contact my direct manager and the departmental manager via email (from my experiences it is advised to contact people via written form as well as by phone as it is a proven form that you contacted them) to express my concerns for the safety of our customers, this would involve more people in the process rather than the decision falling on one person.

If no action were taken and a customer had been injured as a result of a fire caused by the USB Flash Drive the adverse affect would be on the company, there would also be an detrimental effect to the testing department and myself as a Junior engineer ensuring safety tests are carried out. The integrity of all parties involved would be damaged greatly, especially as a problem was identified but not resolved. This would lead to a recall of the entire batch. This happened with Sony Laptop battery packs in October 2008, customers reported cases of batteries overheating and some reports of units catching fire, some of these occurrences resulted in minor property damages and minor burns. 35,000 laptop battery packs were recalled and all customers using these battery packs were advised to stop using them immediately, the cost to Sony was huge and customers lost trust in the company and wondered how such a thing could have happened.

Altermitly one issue is that the batch should never have been sent off in the first place without consent from members in the testing team and the results provided. The methods of testing and approval need to be addressed so that a situation like this cannot happen again. Suggested methods of approval could be:

• If a problem is identified with a certain batch then that batch should be re-tested straight away, if the same results occur then the products should be sent back to an engineer to analyse the problem.
• Another requirement should be that two engineers should review the testing results and sign it off before the batch is sent, this would reduce human error.

I will conclude that after calling and emailing my concerns regarding the results of the tests to my line manager and the departmental manager i would raise concerns in the weekly/Monthly departmental meeting by detailing the findings from the various tests and the possible impact if the products are not recalled . I will also recommend that the products be re-tested. I would do this because as a junior engineer i am effectively still learning the position and to that effect i may not have as much "push/say" as other collegues so by raising my concerns in a team meeting it involves more people and as a department come to a collective descision as to what the next course of action is. This would insure that ethically i have done all i can. I am also aware of the impact of me effectively going "behind my line managers back" by escalating the fire safety issue, doing this could effect the team dynamics and trust. I am also aware that this could altermetly lead to me loosing my job but i feel it is necessary.