Activity 2.1.

3 Ethics and Safety

Introduction
You see them everywhere warning labels. Why do they show up on every product
that we use? Safety is a significant reason for warning labels. Some products, if
used incorrectly, may result in injury. In other cases warning labels exist to protect
the manufacturer in the event that the product is used in a manner inconsistent with
that for which it is intended.

In this activity you will be asked to find products with ethical or safety issues and
identify the issue that may not have been addressed by the manufacturer. You will
also be presented with an ethical and safety scenario that you will analyze.

Equipment
Course binder

Procedure
1. Research two products which present ethical or safety issues. Describe below
each of the products and describe the associated ethical or safety issues.
Product Example Product 1 Product 2
Description of Baby toys Mosquito Zap Light Samsung Galaxy
Product bulb Note 7
U.S. Consumer U.S. Consumer NBC News, New
Source of Product Safety Product Safety York Times, Wall
Information Commission
Commission Street Journal;
U.S. Consumer
Product Safety
Commission
Because they The bulb can Li-ion batteries
contained lead, the possibly separate within these
Ethical or toys placed human
Safety Issue welfare at risk. In from the base phones can
addition, the issue causing potential overheat, catch
brought into electrical shock. fire and explode,
question the causing health and
competence of the burn hazards to
engineers involved.
consumers.

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Computer Integrated Manufacturing Activity 2.1.3 Ethics and Safety Page 1
Scenario
Blansett Plant manufactures grilquarks. Derek is a manager on one of the assembly
lines. Derek requires all line workers to throw every defective grilquark into a
maintenance bin. Dereks supervisor, his good friend Jason, complains to the VP
that Derek is costing the company too much money. Dereks area has the highest
number of defective grilquarks in the plant. The following are facts:
a. Grilquarks are sold at $11.75 each.
b. Each grilquark costs $10 to manufacture.
c. It costs $5.00 per grilquark to repair the defects.
d. The company can manufacture 1,000,000 grilquarks a year.
e. Past history has shown that customers do not return defective grilquarks.

Jason wants Dereks workers to stop repairing defects. Derek has explained that
defects are occurring at the rate of one defect per 200 grilquarks made.

Answer the following questions:
a. If The Maulden Group purchases 645,000 grilquarks, what percentage of
grilquarks will be defective? How many grilquarks is this? Show your work.
1/200 = 5% will be defected
(1/200)=(x/650000) x=3225 grilquarks will be defective

b. What is the difference in profit for Blansett Plant between ordering no repairs
and ordering repairs for all defective grilquarks? How can this be used as an
argument for or against ordering repairs? Show your work.
No Repair = (11.75-10)*1000000 = 1750000

Repair = (1.75*(1000000-3225))-((15-11.75)*3225) = 1733875

Difference in Profit = $16125

c. Assume that the grilquark is a medical device used in treating patients with
heart disease. Defective grilquarks could cause death in 1 out of every 200
patients. How does this change the decision to order repairs?
If all grilquarks are used as a medical device used in trating patients with hear
disease, this would cause 645,000 deaths per year. This changes the
argument to argument because the company can be sued for these deaths do
to neglect to repair defective parts.

d. Jason and Derek are good friends. Why do you think this statement was
made?
Jason is greedy and just wants more money. Derek is looking aout for the best
interests of the company, society, and the people ethically and safely.

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Computer Integrated Manufacturing Activity 2.1.3 Ethics and Safety Page 2
 e. Statistically speaking, how close is the company to meeing the standards of
six sigma? (Lesson 1.1 presented achieving six sigma means that a company
must produce less than 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
5000 defects per million = no where close to meeting the standards of six sigma
2. Choose a scenario from below and create a 2-3 slide presentation, a poster, or a
narrated movie (using movie maker). Summarize the event and answer these
questions: What were the ethical issues involved? What other, if any, factors
contributed? Other factors might include weather, improper use of device, poor
material choice, etc.
a. Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
b. Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
c. Tylenol tampering
d. Lead in baby toys
e. Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
f. Aqua Dots
g. Pack and Play
h. Minnesota bridge
i. Three Mile Island incident
j. Citigroup Center
k. Ford Pinto
l. Minamata disease
m. Chevrolet Corvair
n. Boston molasses disaster
o. Quebec Bridge collapse
p. Johnstown flood
q. Tay Bridge disaster
r. Ashtabula River Railroad disaster

Conclusion
1. Find the Engineering Code of Ethics on the Internet and print it for your
engineers notebook. (http://www.mtengineers.org/pd/NSPECodeofEthics.pdf)
Briefly describe what canon #5 means in your own words.
Canon #5 = Avoid deceptive acts.
This canon means that a company should not place its interests in front of its
consumers, nor should it provide false descritpions of their products just to
have a high sell-out.
2. Attack or defend the statement, When matters of life and property are at stake,
not knowing should be equivalent to we have a problem.
This statement, in my opinion, is true because if a company does not know how
many defects there are per batch of products, then this can result in
multiple problems, such as injuries and even death, caused by their products.
This is a huge problem.

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Computer Integrated Manufacturing Activity 2.1.3 Ethics and Safety Page 3