ME Ethics

Everything you do, see, or interact with has had an ethical dilemma somewhere in the process of it becoming a reality. It could be on where to place a road and might need to move someone’s family, building a car and deciding to use a cheaper inferior plastic or a stronger more expensive one, and even turning in a disgruntled employee who just got laid off from a competing company looking to sell secrets. You may not think of them and they may have even been settled in minutes on which one to go with but some can last through countless meetings, debates, and even arguments. Mechanical engineers are always facing these ethical dilemmas when designing products whether they are given free will over the project or have to get everything approved from the person watching the bottom line.

When designing the product we will know exactly what something can handle with stresses put on it and how long it can last from wear. If it were truly up to us and money was not an option we would have no problem using the best of the best materials with no ifs ands or buts about it. However that never gets to happen, almost always we are making a product for sale and we are always being pushed to make it the cheapest way possible so the company can make as much money as possible. The military is a good example of this situation, as they need to supply for a large quantity of soldiers and must do so in a high quality manner, with productive equipment that must also be cost-efficient. 

The easiest way to change the price on a product being produced is to change the material that it is built with. Some materials can cost many many times more per unit of that material but will be more reliable in every aspect. The cheaper inferior materials are able to save a lot of money for a company and allow them to reinvest in other projects. The more expensive materials can be a lot more reliable and smoother working but of course they could bankrupt a company. There needs to be a balance and the mechanical engineer is the person who needs to argue a middle ground.

Through all the calculations and experiments run an engineer also needs to account for a higher margin for safety as well. They need to be a very persuasive speaker and be able to convince the final decision maker to choose the product that they will feel good about producing and putting their name on it. In the end the product will almost always happen whether the engineer wins the argument, the producer wins, or they reach an acceptable middle ground. If the product is not produced to the quality that it needs and should be produced to bad things do happen. People have died over the years from bad products being used to create a final end product but the majority of products are up to par and last for a long time. As a future mechanical engineer this is an argument that I hope I never have to lose.