(1) Choose one of the characters in “incident at Morales”case: Fred, Wally or Chuck.
• Analyze his action/decision and INVOLVED IMPEDIMENTS.
• Demonstrate and discuss the ethical issues involved and your comments.
(2) From the list shown below, CHOOSE TWO question about the case and answer.
1. On Fred’s first day, Wally says “We’re fast at Phaust.” How might engineering decisions be affected by a corporate culture that emphasizes speed?
2. Chuck alludes to inflating the budget as a hedge against potential budget cuts:
a) What is the difference between inflating a budget and providing contingency funds as a line item?
b) What happens to a project when engineers are faced with budget cuts.
3. Chuck’s brother-in-law is the U.S. representative for Lutz and Lutz. What ethical questions does the procurement process raise when the in-law of a corporate officer works for the supplier? How does this situation look from the viewpoint of other potential suppliers?
4. At SuisseChem, personnel in operations work with engineering personnel in designing chemical plants, but at Phaust, operations and engineering are clearly separate. What are the implications of separating engineering from operations?
5. While talking with Peter, Fred is inspired to make the couplings a maintenance issue, specifying that the couplings should be replaced regularly. Is it appropriate to convert design decisions into maintenance procedures without including operations people in the decision process?
6. Although the chemical process was supposed to be automated, Fred allowed Manuel to volunteer to control the process manually. Is this reasonable?
***Please note that you are only being asked to write two pages on these papers. These pages are not supposed to be wasted re-telling commonly known facts that are general knowledge, sometimes known as “fluff”. Padding your paper with dramatic sentences that add no value is also fluff. Each paragraph should be thoughtful analysis, demonstrate your depth of knowledge and thinking, and address the questions being asked.
