Response to case study scenario 1

As the junior engineer I would not allow this problem to be ignored and would ask my supervisor to reassess the situation as we can all over look faults. Although he probably has many years of experience and also previous knowledge in statistical data such as this to make the informed decision, however he maybe be stressed with other testing or even through his personal life. However the potential financial and legal consequences to the company could be huge. Also the moral responsibility that you carry if an injury, or even worse a death was to result from this. I think that the best course to take would be to highlight the results to your boss again and then also his boss by asking for a small meting to assess the situation and enter this with all the possible implications and statistics. If this were to fail then I think that the company that had taken the delivery would have to be informed after stating to your bosses that this was the course of action you would take. Also the reasonability to the customer is a factor that has to be taken into consideration as potentially you could tarnish their trading name and also place within the market, plus risk the chance of losing all trading with this company.

As the product was only delivered to the client over the weekend chances are that if it could be recalled instantly and they wouldn't have had the time to infiltrate into the market. If this was the case then the cost at this stage would be on average ten times less than if the units go out into the market place. Decisions like this are not easy and often take someone with some moral fibre to question a decision. Your boss should hopefully respect your position and also look further into the issues and implications of letting the units go into the marketplace. A prime example of when units had to be recalled for safety reasons is the DeWalt cordless drill due to a fire hazard with the trigger switch in which 346,000 units were recalled. In this case the company only received 11 reports of the trigger switch overheating and with no injuries but this still shows the importance that industry takes to safeguard the user and the company name.

So I think it is not only the company that that has the responsibility but also you as a safety engineer!

The reason for coming to this decision is due to my own time spent as an engineer working on missile systems on warships where the right decision has to be made every time. Safety regulations aren’t there for the sake of them but in fact to safeguard others and yourself. We often make decisions that the command don’t agree with when they want systems for training, but when it is safety the rules are never bent. You wouldn’t take one of these units home to your wife and family so why would you place that on someone else.

Sometimes what you believe in is worth more than what you are paid!

Reference
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08143.html