discussions about ethics around incident at Morales, Mexico

1. EGR 402:
Juan Rangel
Michael Yassa
Myles Villanueva
Lorenc Hoxha
Thuan Tran
Mohd Faiz Abdillah

2. Fred Martinez
• Fred Martinez, a licensed professional
engineer
• Signed on to work for Phaust
Chemicals.
• Tasked to design a new plant in
Morales Mexico.
• He believes he has fulfilled his ethical
responsibility to design a safe and
efficient plant, but he and his
colleagues are told by corporate
headquarters to both cut budgets and
get the plant on line faster.

3. Ethics Analysis

5. Lutz and Lutz Controls
• Wally claims that Lutz and Lutz controls are the best among the
available alternatives.
• He also claims that the fact that Chuck's brother-in-law works
with Lutz and Lutz is not a relevant factor.

6. Couplings
• In choosing both the type of couplings and piping as well as to
use a local (Mexico) supplier without a plant inspection, what
factors should Fred take into account?
• How does Fred balance safety and reliability with the need to
cut costs due to the parent company's recent acquisitions?

7. Ethical Tests

8. Ethical tests:
• Harm test:
Phaust did not care about the long-term quality of the plant.
• Colleague test:
Professional colleagues may have said that I should have not joined
processed the project of the plant.
and
• Publicity test:
The death of Manuel caused by the usage of cheap pipe and control is an
embarrassing mark for the company and for me, who took
care of the
project.
• Common practice test:
If everyone produces a product with inconsistent quality, then people will
be harmed in the process

9. Issues are defined in a stakeholder roles

10. Issues are defined in a stakeholder roles:
• Budget cut from the company’s parent.
• Instead of using high pressure alloy for pipe running to
and from mixing vessels, Fred used steel pipe.
• Used flanges and couplings that cannot sustain for high
pressure and high temperature for an extended period.
• Determined whether or not line evaporation pond which
has all the waste from the plant.

11. Responsibility

12. Responsibility:
• Chuck and Wally should take their share of the
responsibility on this incident because they tried to
meet up with the budget cuts by buying cheap
materials, but they didn’t care if there would be any
consequences in using the materials.
• Many factors caused the problems: pressure from the
parent company, managers, budget cuts, and low
quality materials.

13. Improving The Conditions

14. How Improving The Conditions
• L&L controls and switch
• Replace or repair cheap and brittle couplings and flanges
• Work conditions with the higher ups
• International laws and standards
• Worker protection and rights

15. Questions???