Executive summary
This paper reviews ethical situations in the “Incident at Morales”. The Phaust Company opted for Mexico as a place for its plant location due to some environmental considerations. As a result, several financial, safety, technical, and environmental problems created ethical dilemmas.
Introduction
This paper reviews the ethical dilemmas arising within the Phaust Company as a result of engineering negligence during the design and construction of the plant in Mexico.
Facts of the case
The Phaust Company decided to locate their paint manufacturing unit in Mexico with a budget of less than 20% of the actual cost. This translated into low quality materials. The consultant engineer had to deal with ethical dilemmas on the type of material to be used. As a result of low quality materials used in the construction, several leakages were reported besides failure of the automatic control system. The plan manager became the victim of low quality construction and died while having tried manually to control the production process (National Institute for Engineering Ethics, 2003).
Stakeholders and their motivations
Owners of the Phaust Company
They were motivated by the need to lower the cost of construction by 20%.
Engineering consultant
Mr. Fred Martinez had to satisfy the demands of the owners of the Phaust Company with a budget cut by 20%.
Possible solutions
The first solution would be to improve the design and structure of the Phaust Company in Mexico. The second solution would be to pull down the structure and restart the construction within the standard engineering construction materials. The last solution would be to change the products manufactured in the plant in Mexico.
Alternatives
The alternative available for the Phaust Company is to acknowledge that there is a problem in the structural strength and design of the manufacturing plant in order to create a task force that provides long terms solutions. The company could also opt for a quick fix by fortifying the current structure. The third alternative would be to ignore the challenges and continue with production as if everything were fine.
Additional assistance
The Phaust Company may outsource a technical officer to help the consultant engineer to establish the root cause of the current problems within the plant in Mexico. Besides, the shareholders may request for the services of a local engineering body to create long term solutions that address the current challenges (Davis, 2007).
Best course of action
The best course of action would be to accept that there is an issue to solve on construction and design of the manufacturing plant. Then a task force should be developed so that to provide long terms solutions. The task force may consist of the consultant engineer, an outsourced expert, and the local engineering body (Davis, 2007). The company should follow the recommendations of this task force, even if it means pulling down the current plant.
Implementing the solution
Implementing the solution would require adherence to the engineering standards in the design and choice of materials for construction (Whitebeck, 2011). This means that the substandard materials, such as chemicals, piping, and valves, should be replaced with standard quality materials.
Monitoring and assessing the solution
The shareholders should delegate the duty to the outsourced professional in order to micromanage the process of implementing the recommendations by the taskforce (Davis, 2007).
Conclusion
It is necessary to follow the standard engineering procedure in the choice of materials and design of plants to avoid ethical dilemmas in future. The Phaust Company lost its plant manager as a result of engineering negligence.
References
Davis, M. (2007). Developing and using cases to teach practical ethics,” Teaching Philosophy, 20(4), 353–385. Web.
National Institute for Engineering Ethics. (2003). Incident at Morales: An engineering ethics story. Web.
Whitebeck, C. (2011). Ethics in engineering practice and research (2nd ed.). London, UK: Cambridge University Press. Web.