Ethical Dilemmas Of An Industrial Engineer

Staff members should notify their manager without delay, to report the concern/disclosure. (If a staff member is the alleged perpetrator, the overall manager/owner should be notified, as extended leave/redeployment may need to be considered.)

1. Discuss an ethical dilemma that you have had to face in the workplace. Ethical dilemmas

Another alternative, Nattamon can call to her friend to tell this story. If she tell this story with friend maybe wrong policy to telling internal problem to outside and make her job has unsecure and make litigate with Darunee and destroy ES company image in community and Nattamon’s friend has uncomfortable to know this news.

In “Curbing Overconsumption: Challenge for Ethically Responsible Engineering,” professor E.J. Woodhouse discusses the causes of the modern environmental crisis, particularly how engineers should be responsible for aiding the environment. At one point, he asks, ’if it is technically feasible to arrange consumption far more efficiently, as Paul Hawken, William McDonough, and an increasing variety of others claim, does that imply that the engineers who help arrange the wasteful approaches are violating certain ethical standards?’ (Woodhouse 24) Woodhouse claims that it is the ethical role of engineers to use their positions and resources to decrease the waste production of American overconsumption. Meanwhile, in “Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World?” environmental professor Michael Maniates discusses the modern environmentalist movement, and in particular discusses its individualized aspects. Maniates’ argument revolves around evaluating the various failures of what he refers to as individualization of responsibility, which ‘embraces the notion that knotty issues of consumption, consumerism, power and responsibility can be resolved neatly and cleanly through enlightened, uncoordinated consumer choice.’ (Maniates 33). In the specific context of environmentalism, individualization of responsibility manifests as buying eco-friendly products instead of practicing some other form of environmentalism. Instead, Maniates believes that environmental issues stem

Industrial Engineers often face the ethical dilemma of attempting to balance costs with quality and safety. Company management pressures Industrial systems engineers to design processes that are cost efficient, time constrained, and produce a high quality output. This puts the engineer in a tricky balancing act in which they are trying to make every stakeholder happy. Taking risks in order to create cost efficient solutions is not specific to only industrial engineers but applies to all disciplines of engineering, making this topic a relevant discussion. However, this conflict is especially true in a manufacturing setting where industrial engineers thrive, machine operators are often overworked, companies make products in high stakes, large batches, and the range of quality acceptance is growing ever smaller. A relevant example is the engineer who was designing a chemical plant in Mexico. In order to achieve the correct viscosity of the paint stripper, the engineer asked the plant operator to babysit the chemical mixture and manually release the valve when necessary. Engineering management’s decision puts the plant worker at a safety risk in order to achieve a tighter quality and standardization of the chemical stripper production process. Ultimately, this resulted in the catastrophic death of the plant worker and the destruction of the plant.

The paramount idea I am advocating is this; the safety and health of the public are put at risk if the same kind of people keeps political power in the future. Consequently what I mean is a person with no engineering background or similar trades in positions of power chose not to act in the best interest of the public when their careers are on the line. [4] The world is changing at a blinding pace; the challenges of global warming, population growth, and rapidly advancing technology, are behemoth problems the general public needs help to tackle, and engineers to rise to their public duty. [6] Moreover I believe the threats to humanity will overwhelm the political structure we currently have unless engineers are at the helm to meet them and dislodge those in power. What made me believe this somewhat radical idea is there are several human-made disasters we have covered in the class discussion, caused by people with little to no engineering experience making engineering decisions and catastrophe and appealing resulting from those decisions. [7]

3 Engineers shall act in a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and

Engineering Ethics come from two words, which is engineering and ethics. Engineering is one of the applications of science to meet human needs and desires. Combines engineering science, mathematics, and experience to design an object or process. Professional engineering practice called engineers. The word engineering came from Latin word which is ingenium meaning ‘contrive, design’. In this 21st century, engineering had been use widely surround human life. The word ethics derived from the Greek word which is “ethos”. Ethos means morality or custom character. Synonymous with the word moral comes from other word “Mos” to the plural “Mores” which means custom or way of life. Therefore, engineering ethics is a set of scientific discipline that applies to the profession of engineering.

Ethics is the moral behavior that guides our actions; it motivates us in our personal behavior and is relevant in a business setting as well. Many organizations have set forth a set of guidelines known as a “Code of Ethics”. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, being one of these organizations, has set forth their code as a requirement for students and engineer members to adhere to. Heading towards a career in electrical engineering I choose this organization to elaborate on for my ethics project.

An ethical dilemma that Industrial Engineers are often faced with is attempting to balance costs with quality and safety. Industrial systems engineers are pressured by company management to design processes that are cost efficient, time constrained, and produce a high quality output. This puts the engineer in a tricky balancing act in which they are trying to make every stakeholder happy. Taking risks in order to create cost efficient solutions is not specific to only industrial engineers, but applies to all disciplines of engineering, making this topic a relevant discussion. However, this conflict is especially true in a manufacturing setting where industrial engineers thrive, machine operators are often overworked, products are made in high stakes large batches, and the range of quality acceptance grows ever smaller. Take the video about the engineer who was designing a chemical plant in Mexico that was showed in lecture for example. In order to achieve the correct viscosity of the paint stripper, the engineer asked the plant operator to babysit the chemical mixture and manually release the valve when necessary. Engineering management’s decision put the plant worker at a safety risk in order to achieve a tighter quality and standardization on the chemical stripper production process. Ultimately, this resulted in the catastrophic death of the plant worker and the destruction of the plant.

© The Royal Academy of Engineering ISBN 1-903496-73-X August 2011 Published by The Royal Academy of Engineering 3 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5DG Tel: 020 7766 0600 www.raeng.org.uk Registered Charity Number: 293074 This is an abridged version of a full guide available online at: www.raeng.org.uk/ethicsinpractice

The following outline will help me write my essay about how engineers are faced with the ethical and moral issues of bribery in the industry. I chose this issue because it is a topic that speaks close to me. I have been put into many situations at work and during internships where I ask myself whether it is a bribe or if it is just networking. This essay will not only discuss the issue of bribery in the industry but help me further understand how to analyze certain scenarios if I am offered something else in the future.

Ethics by definition are defined as a set of moral rules of conduct that are accepted by general public and should be obeyed by everyone. Ethics are essential to the architecture of a modern dynamic society and play a vital part in engineering or any other businesses. Ethics provide guidance to humans to pursue a course of action correctively in specific situations, and prevent us from the ones that would have negative or drastic consequences. Ethics clarifies what is good and bad on the basis of moral principle or values. Regardless of which particular field the engineer is in (e.g. civil, electrical or mechanical), their main liability and responsibility are to ensure the health, safety, and general welfare of the public are protected to the highest level possible. Since almost the work done by engineers can have great impact on almost all aspects of our daily life, any design schemes or implementations that are made by engineers must meet the highest standard to ensure that no damages or potential damages to any resource, people, organization or environment will exist. Many organizations, like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) have established a set of code of ethics to

Industrial Engineers are seldom faced with the major moral dilemmas that will affect public safety, which often headline the news when they go wrong, examples including: a plane wreck, a building falling, or a major gas leak. Industrial Engineers are faced with numerous moral predicaments, albeit they are not the kind that affect the lives of large amounts of people. The moral issue that I will be exploring, is whether it is acceptable to execute a slightly immoral action, when being pushed to do so by a superior. There is not a right answer that applies to every situation, or to everybody; I will explore this issue from various standpoints and ethical ideals before I reach my conclusion.

Engineering is a pylon of human development and technology,having a significant impact on people’s daily lives. Engineering has improved humanity in every aspect (e.g. transportation, communication, medicine) and it has the potential to overcome the challenges that mankind still faces. However, engineers have responsibility for their actions and they must learn to follow a set of ethical principles relating to their work. All of which have to be followed to the letter otherwise there can be severe consequences.