This document discusses the challenges mechanical engineers face in balancing technical merit with business demands and costs. Engineers are pressured to make decisions based on economics rather than safety and design quality. However, compromising technical standards can lead to failures like the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. The document outlines solutions for engineers to oppose business decisions that undermine safety and ethics. It concludes that the engineering field remains viable despite conflicts if standards of conduct are upheld.

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Brandon Morisset
Mrs. Lester
Adv. Grammar and Comp
26 September, 2011
Engineering
Have you ever been in the middle of a project and realize because of money or resources
you find out you have to change the whole creation of the project. This problem has been more
and more relevant to mechanical engineers; their bosses are pressuring them to build on cost
purposes rather than technical merit. We’ve all been there: an executive, manager, or client
pressures the engineer to make decisions based on business economics rather than technical
merit. Last year was filled with stories of missteps: BP’s loss of Deepwater Horizon, and
Toyota’s problems with brakes and accelerators. (Porter 1) The greatest challenge facing
mechanical engineers is how to keep their decisions based on technical merit and keep business
economics and costs down to a minimum?
First of all, mechanical engineers decisions are mainly based on the merit they learn in
school, they are taught to be technically sound, not cheap and economic. As mechanical
engineers get further into their career they start to notice that more and more pressure is being
put on them to keep prices low. For Example as Brian Porter says, “Over the past 50 years, with
the flattening of management, engineers also must balance budgets and meet business demands.”
This isn’t really smart in order to balance budgets and still meet business demands that means a
lot of cuts have to take place, meaning the final project will be slacking in some aspect by the
time the reveal it. Mechanical engineers are one field of workers where you don’t want the
workers to slack. If you think about it engineers produce over ninety percent of the things we
use. “There is not supposed to be a conflict in combining the engineer’s role with that of project

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manager because they are supposed to complement each other. The engineer and the manager
share responsibility on a project for “getting it right.” (Porter 1) This is true, if engineers and
project managers are supposed to get the project right why are there always problems between
the two. The problem lies in their legal obligations, Engineers definitely have the education,
competence and experience to build and design, but it’s the managers that have permission to
stamp drawings and approve final designs. However according to Brian Porter, “The
requirements to meet technical needs (functional specifications, public safety, reliability, etc.)
and business (such as budget and schedule management) are frequently conflicting in nature,
even when they theoretically serve one another.” Once again, these two conflicting theories
should never be against each other, they should work hand in hand.Technical needs and business
should be one in the same, engineers should be able to keep budget down as well as meet
technical needs. All in all, although there shouldn’t even be a conflict between technical needs
and business.
Furthermore, the effects of this new cheap and economic standard they are forced to use
have created many problems in the past and are bound to create even more. For example, Earlier
this year, on Jan. 28, we remembered the explosion 25 years ago of the Space Shuttle
Challenger. The Rogers Commission, appointed to investigate the incident, attributed the
accident to “failure in the O-rings sealing a joint on the right solid rocket booster.” (Porter 1)
What the Rogers Commission learned later was that this failure was caused by a disagreement
between an engineer and a manager. These disagreements, as you can tell, are fatal in some cases
and are proving to be a bigger problem than expected. These engineering flaws can be found all
around the world, including 3rd world countries such as Haiti, for example “In Haiti, most if not
all of the buildings have major engineering flaws,'' (Sinclair 1) Most houses and other structures

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in Haiti are built of poured concrete or block, there being very little lumber available due to mass
deforestation. Meaning that these houses and other structures aren’t very strong, definitely not
earthquake proof for example. Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for
Humanity, a nonprofit design group based in San Francisco, said he was ''horrified'' when he
visited Port-au-Prince and Gonaives last October to assess the quality of construction there. This
is really no big surprise, I don’t know what he was expecting to find in a country that’s
government is so corrupt they don’t bother with infrastructure. However, the main reason the
earthquake was so devastating was because of the lack of infrastructure the countries’ buildings
would never be able to withstand earthquake tremors.
However, over the years solutions have been made, managers and engineers roles are
supposed to complement each other not conflict with each other. Solutions are as followed for
Ethical Considerations Brian Porter, a professional engineer, dictates, “These circumstances
require an engineer to oppose business drivers. In situations of safety and health, there is no
choice. Deciding where that line is—well that’s the challenge.” Meaning that under certain
ethical circumstances engineers may have to oppose the business managers, especially when
safety and health are involved. I believe Mr. Porter has the right idea, when a product being built
has become a danger to the clients or consumers because of business, there is absolutely no
choice on what to do. Again, professional engineer Brian Porter speaks on the solution between
young engineers versus senior business managers he says, “…The engineer called the vice
president and directors of both departments. The business manager was escorted out of the R&D
facility and told that he had no further say as to when the units would be shipped for field
evaluation.” When engineers are pressured into wrong by business managers, they always have
the option of calling a higher authority to set things right. In the case presented above, the young

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engineer knew that what the business manager was doing was extremely wrong based upon the
engineers’ creed. Professional engineers must dedicate themselves, their creed which reads, “As
a Professional Engineer, I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and
betterment of human welfare and pledge…To participate in none but honest enterprise.”“None
but honest enterprise” are the key words in the whole creed. Anything that goes against this is in
a sense illegal. Engineers are there to benefit the people, if they start making products that injure
or harm that goes against their ethics.
Finally, because of the solutions created by engineers and their managers, the future
outlook is looking good for the mechanical engineer profession. Dealing with the main problems
Sinclair commented, “Demands to sacrifice safety are out of the question. Demands to sacrifice
performance must be evaluated diligently and sensitively. Take some time to consider decisions
you’ve made: Learn from the past; use it today, for a successful future. Sinclair has the right
idea, any engineer that hears about removing something to sacrifice safety, should immediately
tell a higher authority. Sinclair also states we should learn from the past and use it for a
successful future.''Newer construction has been developed to withstand hurricanes, not
earthquakes,'' said John McAslan, a London architect who has studied Haitian buildings, working
with the Clinton Global Initiative. ''If you engineer for one you're not necessarily covering the
other” This makes sense while engineers are still trying to work on developing construction to
withstand earthquakes technology is also advancing. The outlook for Haiti may appear grim
however it is the opposite “Engineers believe that the credibility and reputation of the project
management profession is shaped by the collective conduct of individual practitioners.” (Porter
1) At an attempt to fix all the problems.. the engineers code of ethics is used to enstil confidence
in managers and engineers alike.

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In Conclusion, this information was very astonishing. I couldn’t believe that such a minor
childlike problem, such as miscommunication, could cause such a devastating effect in a huge
field. Based on the research conducted, the engineering field is still a very prominent field to
enter for a career. In the research, as explained above, very simple ways of coping with the issue
at hand have been developed and have been proved to be extremely helpful. The impact on the
issue itself isn’t huge, however many engineers are more timid to search for a job because they
know what’s at stake. All in all, engineering as a field and career is not greatly affected by this
issue.

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Works Cited
“Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station.” Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Gale, 2011. Web. 29
Sept. 2011. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/
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4150251&mode=view>.
Fountain, Henry. “Flawed Building Likely a Big Element.” New York Times [New York] 14 Jan.
2010: n. pag. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/
NewsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=News&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=O
VIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CA216466653&
mode=view>.
Porter, Brian E. “Serving Two Masters.” Mechanincal Engineering the Magazine of ASME 1.1
(2011): 1. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 12 Sept. 2011.
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