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Explore the challenges faced by chemical engineer Fred Martinez as he navigates his role, responsibilities, and decisions at Phaust Chemical. Dive into topics such as plant design, confidentiality, safety, and environmental regulations.
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Jeopardy Hosted by Jack Bauer and Agent Pierce
What Happened? Role Responsibility Decision Points in IM Characters 100 100 100 100 200 200 200 200 300 300 300 300 400 400 400 400 500 500 500 500
Row 1, Col 1 What is Old Stripper? The product manufactured by Phaust Chemical.
1,2 Who is Fred? This character is (role) responsible for signing off on the new plant design for Phaust
1,3 What is the need to line the waste ponds proposed for the Morales plant to prevent toxic contaminants from leaching into the local drinking water? Fred’s wife, Maria, a compliance litigator for the EPA, raises this problem when they are at home watching TV.
1,4 Who is Fred Martinez? Chemical engineer hired by Phaust to design a new plant to manufacture paint remover.
2,1 What is a non-compete clause? Chuck tells Dominique that it was OK to hire Fred because Fred’s contract with his old employer (Chemi Toil) did not include this.
2,2 What is Wally’s vision of his role responsibility as Fred’s supervisor? I’m here to make sure that you don’t mess things up by bringing people who are three stages removed from what’s gong on and screw things up.
2,3 What is the duty or responsibility of confidentiality? When Wally asks Fred if Phaust’s plans are similar to those he helped develop at Chemi Toil, he is inviting Fred to violate this employee duty or responsibility.
2,4 Who is Dominque? Corporate liaison from Chemistre (parent company in France) to Phaust
3,1 What is, for Wally, one of the main reasons for building the new chemical plant in Morales, Nuevo Leon, Mexico? Because Mexico’s environmental regulations are not as strict as those set forth by the EPA.
3,2 What is the paramount role responsibility of a professional engineer like Fred Martinez? Upholding the health safety, and welfare of the public
3,3 What is (plant) operations? In order to save money and respond to Chemistre’s request for a 20% cut in budget for the Morales plant, Chuck recommends passing off long term costs for reduced plant size to this division within Phaust.
3,4 Who is Chuck? Vice president of engineering at Phaust.
4,1 What are Lutz and Lutz Controls? Fred decided to go with different controls than these because they were cheaper and because their range was OK below 350 degrees and 200 PSI.
4,2 What is the role responsibility of the Chemistre, Phaust’s parent company from France? While they might dispute this, they should supervise the com- panies they have acquired by setting and enforcing standards of safety and good business practice.
4,3 What is the fact that Chuck’s brother-in-law is the Lutz and Lutz salesman? Fred suspects that Chuck is invested in Lutz and Lutz controls for this reason.
4,4 Who was Manuel Ortega? Plant manager for the new Phaust plant in Morales, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
5,1 What is changing the chemical formulation of New Stripper by raising the temperature and pressure of the emulsion during preparation? Phaust’s response when they studied samples from Chemi Toil’s new product, EasyStripper.
5,2 What is Phaust company policy (and possibly Fred’s role responsibility) when taking on a new supplier? Doing an on-sight inspection to examine the safety and reliability of product manufactured.
5,3 What are some of the elements causally responsible for the “incident at Morales”? The last minute reformulation of the emulsion at the Morales plant requiring higher temperatures and pressures, censors and controls with limited ranges requiring on-sight visual inspections, and couplings and flanges that were not properly spec’d by the engineer in charge.
5,4 Who is Wally? Fred’s supervisor at Phaust who insisted on his “One Rule.”
Definition of Role Responsibility • To stand committed to carrying out the goods, values, duties, and tasks around which a social or professional role is oriented.
What is the responsibility of confidentiality in this case • As a former employee of Chemi Toil, Fred has a role responsibility not to reveal proprietary information to competitors • Frequently companies review proprietary information with employees when they leave the company • Some companies insert clauses into the employment contract limiting the right of ex-employees to work for competitors
What are maquiladores? • These are twin plants built by a developed nation in a neighboring developing nation to escape the stricter environmental and safety regulations as well as higher labor costs in developed nations. • The video is suggesting that Phaust is engaging in the practice when it states (in more than one occasion) that environmental regulations, supplies, and labor are much cheaper in Mexico • Does this represent a violation of distributive justice? Are citizens of developing nations being asked to bear environmental, safety, and low wage burdens to provide citizens of developed nations high quality goods at low cost?
What is Wally’s real Role Responsibility? • Wally is concerned that Fred will sacrifice profits to pursue exclusively engineering concerns. • According to the Hitachi Report, finance-driven companies exclude engineers from day-to-day decisions • Other companies expect engineers to advocate quality and ethical issues in team-based decision-making • The Harvard Business School sees managers as balancing the often competing interests of investors, employees, customers, and the public • Which of these stakeholders is Wally neglecting when he holds as his primary responsibility to maximize profits and, by implication, his bonus? • Are these bonus incentives temptations to do wrong?
Engineering Codes of Ethics • This responsibility appears in engineering codes (such as the National Society of Professional Engineers) in their Fundamental Principles section and as the first canon • The engineer’s responsibility is to inform the client/manager of the consequences of his or her decision to the public • If the health, safety, or welfare of the public is still at risk, then the engineer is enjoined to notify “proper authority.”
Did Manuel understand the additional risk he was being asked to take? • Martin and Schinzinger tell us that “a thing is safe if, were its risks fully known, those risks would be judged acceptable in light of settled value principles.” • But this assumes that the engineer has assessed these risks, fully communicated them to risk bearers, and have aligned risk information with the risk perception of the public. • Has Fred fully assessed and communicated the risks to Manuel?
What is Wally’s One Rule • Basically, Wally is telling Fred to respect the chain of command. • If he has an issue to take to Chuck or anyone further up the chain of command, he must tell Wally first. In other words, he must not circumvent or go around Wally. • How can Fred balance his responsibility to Wally as his supervisor with his responsibility as an engineer to make risk information publicly available?