Response to case study scenario 1

I will not ignore the problem occured in the test even it is just 1 product failed the test, the whole batch of products should be recalled. There are a few reasons below which support my decisions.

1) 3 tests failed indicates that there are problems in the product. 1.5% of the products will cause a fire hazard to the user. At that time, the reputation of the company will be ruin by the 1.5% of defect products. The company need to replaced the lost of the user or been sue if any accident happen due to the defective products
2) Based on previous experience on a skin care company(Clinique), whenever the company produce a new product, this product will be tested on 600 different people for 12 times, which is 7200 times before the products are published in the public. If there is just 1 test which will affect the skin of the user, the product will be called off.
3) Although there is just a minor percentage of the defective product, but the most important thing is it will cause a fire hazard. Recall the product might affect the company to lost a business, but at least it can stop a fire hazard and protect the reputation of the company. Reputation is hard to build but is easy to be ruin.
4) If the problem has been ignored, the department will face serious consequences when accidents happen to the product and I as a junior engineer will be blame of causing this problem even though I've reported to the supervisor.

The reasons above will lead to the my actions below.
1)Since the supervisor insists of ignoring the product, I will report to the manager directly with the conseqeunces due to the defective products.
2) A notice of the product recall will be publish through newspaper and internet to get back the whole batch of the product. Although they would be some customer who are lazy to return the product to the manufacturer, the company will not responsible for any lost due to defective product as the company has given the notice of product recall.
3) A replacement of new USB flash drive which passed through the safety test with some free gifts will be given to the customer who return the product in the batch.

Prevention is better than cure. It is better to prevent any accidents happen than making some replacement to recover from it. Under Consumer Protection Act 1987 Part 2 state that "created government powers to regulate the safety of consumer products through Statutory Instruments". In the Act, liability falls on the producers, importers or persons holding themselves out as producers when damage caused wholly or partly by a defect in a product. The company would need to pay for the accidents, lawyer fee and all sorts of charges of causing the accident. It will be a massive amount compare to the cost of recalling the defective products.

Finally it is better to lost a business rather ruin the reputation of the company as business is an on going event, but once if the reputation has been ruin, the business will failed.