Response to case study scenario 1
I would talk with my managers supervisor and make sure that the products are recalled from the client, I would also make sure that better testing procedures are out in place so that this problem could not happen again. To do this I would make sure that each USB drive is tested twice and that before a batch can be sent out to the clients it would have to be approved by two managers instead of just one, this way you stand a better chance of not having to recall a product at a later date as you have had two people in senior positions reviewing the testing process and any tests which may have failed.
There must be a design flaw with the USB drives for them to be overheating, I would be worried that the current design maybe adapted to be faster or larger size for a new product to save money rather than designing a completely new one. Then once the new product has been manufactured and you are testing them you find that because of the changes you made to the design you find that it has increased the overheating problem you had with the first design. Then you will have to go back to the design phase and solve the problem and manufacture more increasing your costs and it may also delay getting the new product out to stores when you wanted to. It would be better to recall the products and fix the problem now instead of ignoring it and in counting more problems at a later date.
If a USB drive were to cause a fire it could cost the company greatly financially due to legal damages and negligence to not disclosing the possible problem to the clients. This could have a massive impact on the companies reputation as future business clients may not want to be associated with a company that is willing to put public's safety at risk. If the company has a bad reputation with the public then it is unlikely that they will buy any of our products, as there will always be other competitors selling similar products for around the same price. So it would be best to recall the products and replace them to ensure a high level of quality products and customer service to stop any damage to our reputation otherwise we may find that we are no longer able to compete with other companies.
I would be very concerned that the USB drive could cause a fire which would result in a fatality, I would feel personally responsible for knowing that there was fire hazard and I had just ignored the problem. I think that I would be in the companies best interests to recall them, if you look at the IEEE code of ethics the first point is "to accept responsibility in making a decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment" I feel that the company has a duty to disclose the problem to the clients and recall the products.
If you look at a similar situation such as the Sony laptop batteries in some of Dell's and Apple's laptops some 4.1 million Dell batteries were recalled around 15% of what they sold between 2004 and 2006 and Apple had to recalled 1.8 million batteries, recalling such a large number of batteries must have been very expensive for them when only 339 incidents occurred out of the 4.1 million batteries however it was still enough for them to recall the products "Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) also said they had identified 339 incidents in which lithium batteries used in laptops and cell phones - not just Dell products - overheated between 2003 and 2005" Even thought only a very small percentage of batteries had overheated they decided to admit there was a problem with them and recall all the affected batteries to keep a high level of customer safety and customer service and to help minimise the damage to their reputation.
I have been in a similar situation before when I was installing Cat 6e data cables into a laboratory at a pharmaceutical company, when I noticed that the outside of one of the cables we had installed had been caught against something and the wires had been exposed. I could have decided to not report the problem to my manager and most likely the cable wouldn't have been noticed. However after reporting the problem I found out that under certain conditions when they are using certain chemicals the atmosphere can become explosive and an electrical charge on the exposed cables could be enough to cause a large explosion. If this was to have happened it would have cost our company millions in damages along with losing a very important client, possibly someone's life and the company's reputation would be in pieces and more than likely cost us more business with other clients.
Dell recalls 4.1m laptop batteries
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4793143.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4790000/newsid_4795900/4795951.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5319168.stm
https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
IEEE Code of Ethics
http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/iportals/aboutus/ethics/code.html
U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission
http://www.cpsc.gov/
http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml06/06231.html - Sony batteries in Dell laptops
http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml06/06205.html - Lexar Jump Drive recall
