Why Does Ethics Get Fit In Engineering

CASE 1 : QUALITY OF PRODUCTS—DEFECTIVE CHIPS Facts: Engineer A is an electrical engineer working in quality control at a computer chip plant. Engineer A’s staff generally identifies defects in manufactured chips at a rate of 1 in 150. The general industry practice is for defective chips to be repaired or destroyed. Engineer B, Engineer A’s supervisor, recently announced that defective chips are to be destroyed, because it is more expensive to repair a defective chip than it is to make a new chip. Engineer A proceeds on the basis of Engineer B’s instructions. A few months later, Engineer B informs Engineer A that Engineer A’s quality control staff is rejecting too many chips, which is having an effect on overall plant output and, ultimately,

We know that engineers make things, use their creativity to design solutions to the world’s problem, and help the future. But where does ethics get fit in engineering? Ethics fits into engineering is through professional responsibility. As engineers the build products and develop processes. In general they advance society by building new technology and these processes change how we live and what we can accomplish. Ethics is part of engineering for two main reasons. Which are engineers need to be socially responsible when building products and processes for society and Social responsibility requires professional

From this code ethics, there is a rule that can be apply to the situation, that is Engineer A supposedly create the best quality product possible for the company and the clients. When this rule is being apply by Engineer A, it will tends to maximize overall happiness. This is because with higher quality products the negative impact upon the end user is minimized and the positives are maximized. Furthermore, it may not maximize utility in some scenarios. For example, there may be scenarios where a reduction of quality would not result in more negative consequences. So in general this rule will maximize overall happiness so it should be followed.

The next rule that can be apply in the case study is always do what is good for the safety of the general public. One of NSPE Code Ethics also said that engineers shall act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees. In general this rule would maximize happiness and minimize suffering. But this rule does not being apply in the case study because it cannot be seen that lowering the quality of the chips would have any effect upon the safety of the general