Incident at Morales - Essay Example

Incident at Morales Incident at the Morales outlines the challenges associated with proposing an original plant in Morales in Mexico, and the outcomes of the violation of the ethical standards of engineers. Phaust Chemical manufacturers, a company dealing with the production of paint removers in the US encounters market competition, and decide to open a new sub-branch in Mexico in order to continue dominating the market. Fred Martinez, a professional engineer, is given the obligation to design and construct a new plant in Mexico, which he supposes he has satisfied the ethical accountability in the plan of a harmless and well-organized plant (National Institute for Engineering Ethics 3-23).

In addition, Chuck the vice leader of the engineering at the Phaust persuades Martinez to decrease the cost of building in order to save funds for built-up of their products. However, the engineer identifies environmental and technical challenges that could result to health problems to the members of the staff, and to the society around. In this regard, Martinez has no option but to abandon the challenges in order to regulate the construction cost to be able to leave behind funds for the manufacture of paint remover.

For instance, Martinez deviated from the engineering principles which demand engineer’s to report to their superiors whenever they identify a hazard. In this regard, Chuck the vice president advised Martinez to reduce the construction cost as much as possible in order for the company to have manufacturing funds (Applegarth). As a result, the engineer ignored many ethical stuffs associating to protection, wellbeing, and the atmosphere. On the other hand, Martinez did not inform his fellow colleagues when the ethical decision was to be made, procedure for the project was not presented in an honest channel, and employee’s contributions were not considered.

In this regard, the engineer neglected the environmental issues when acquiring different ingredients for the plant. For instance, he purchased less expensive pipes and connector for construction in order to be able to save money and ignored the repercussion it would cause (Applegarth). By doing this, Martinez failed to apply the engineer’s principles, which require engineers to consider the well-being of the individuals operating in the premise. In this regard, he purchased materials that could not hold out far above the ground hotness, and stress for a long period.

In addition, Martinez failed to purchase the best quality sensors from Lutz and Lutz. The sensors failed to function properly, which caused the death of the vice president. On the other hand, Mexico’s environmental regulations did not involve an inside layer in the evaporation ponds unlike the US environment regulations that demanded the ponds should have a lining. (National Institute for Engineering Ethics 3-23).Engineering ethics requires engineers to take into consideration both the positive and negative issues of engineering.

In this regard, engineers are supposed to evaluate the possible occurrence of a hazard that can result to property damage, wastage of resources, and the loss of life and rectify it. The engineers are supposed to rectify areas, which can result to a disaster such as technical problems, environmental, and safety measures among others. In this regard, Martinez and Chuckle ignores this engineer’s precautions and ethics without hindering their obligation as engineers. Due to their negligence, Martinez purchased poor quality pipes which due to great temperature and pressure exploded causing the death of the vice president (Harris, Pritchard, Rabins, James, Englehardt 10-15).

Works cited Applegarth, Mike. Incident at Morales. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube ,7 May. 2014. Web. 8 August. 2014. Harris, Charles, Pritchard, Michael., Rabins, Michael, J., James,Ray., Englehardt, Elaine. Engineering ethics: Concepts and Cases. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. 2013. Print.National Institute for Engineering Ethics. Incident at Morales: Study Guide. Texas: Texas Tech University, 2003.