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Engineering code of conduct

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tszaboo:
I have an ethical dilemma, that I would like your opinion on. There is one particular case that is happening at my company now. I dont want the situation to escalate or to make a precedent.

An electronics engineer (not me) got a task, to design the wiring diagram of an electrical box. It would go in an industrial area, potentially dangerous, so faults are not really tolerable, and this would be copied to a thousand installations. The EE told his manager that he doesn't have the expertise to do it, the manager said that bullshit, they are just electrons and do the task. Or something along those lines, it doesnt matter what was exactly said. We dont have the expertise at the firm to design this, we should hire a consultant to do it.

All I'm seeing here is that in engineering, there is the engineering code of ethics, which is different from country to country, but the ideas of it is constant. First two rules:
1. Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties.
2. Engineers shall perform services only in areas of their competence.
( American Society of Civil Engineers )
What I see here, it is breaking the first two rules. And I will step in, stop whats happening and right this situation. But then again, this could get me or the guy fired if I dont communicate it well, or just seriously harm work relations. On the other hand, if we mess up the wiring, worst case scenarios could mean setting a tank filled with 1000L gasoline on fire.

What would you do? Have you been in a situation like this?

Mr. Scram:
Just from a practical point of view: who will catch the flak when these products do go up? Will this guy take all responsibility?

RandallMcRee:
Never been in this situation. I did work at a fault-tolerant hardware company for 20 years. We sold to banks. Millions of dollars on the line. But *no* lives. We took extraordinary measures to test, test, test. QA was paramount.

Personally, I know that I have never designed something right the first time without extensive testing. Even then, mistakes got through.

If lives are involved then another level up in extraordinary measures is needed. So the extensive testing I was referring to above would still be inadequate. If your company does not do this normally then I would suggest that the expertise does not exist in your company.

Just one example--do you have the in-house capability to physically simulate a lightning strike? I'm not sure you actually need to do that, here, but....I do know that storage of flammable materials does need to take such things into account.

If the manager goes ahead with this I would consider going to a lawyer.

tggzzz:
Interesting, in the sense of the Chinese curse.

I have been in a similar position, but not quite as stark. I have seen others be hit hard. There is no easy solution and multiple approaches should be tried.

Do everything to avoid bypassing the chain of command, until there is no alternative.

Give the managers every opportunity to do the right thing. Let them claim the kudos for doing the right thing. Guide them to realise the corporate and personal consequences of doing the wrong thing. Get them to informally validate your opinions with other competent engineers.

Talk to your peers to calibrate your beliefs, your actions and gain support.

Document everything via emails and contemporary notes, in case lawyers become involved. Use note books with preprinted page numbers.

Try to get external legal advice, possibly through a support mechanism and/or a professional organisation.

If things get nasty, expect the corporate hierarchy to protect itself. Be prepared to take unpleasant decisions based on that.

In my case the corporate culture was such that my manager got another engineer to check and validate my concerns, then made acceptable choices.

Ultimately you can escape many situations, but you can never escape yourself.

themadhippy:
Ask  your manager if they'd employ an industrial electrician to design electronic circuits.

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