Your company has for some time supplied prefabricated wall sections which you designed, to construction companies. Suddenly one day a new idea occurs to you about how these might be fabricated more cheaply using composites of recycled waste materials.
Pilot runs for the new fabrication technique are very successful, so it is decided to entirely switch over to the new technique on all future production runs for the prefabricated sections. But there are managerial debates about how, or even whether, to inform the customers about the fabrication changes.
The supply contracts were written with specifications and functional terms, so that load bearing capacities and longevity, etc., of the wall sections were specified, but no specific materials or fabrication techniques were identify in the contracts. Thus it would be possible to make the changeover without any violation of ongoing contracts with the customers.
On the other hand, since there is significant cost savings in the new fabrication method, does your company have an ethical obligation to inform the customers of this, and perhaps even to renegotiate supply at reduced cost, so that the customers also share in benefits of the new technique? More specifically, do you have any special duty, as a professional engineer and designer of the new technique, to be an advocate in your company for the position that customers should be fully informed of the new technique and associated cost savings?
Pilot runs for the new fabrication technique are very successful, so it is decided to entirely switch over to the new technique on all future production runs for the prefabricated sections. But there are managerial debates about how, or even whether, to inform the customers about the fabrication changes.
The supply contracts were written with specifications and functional terms, so that load bearing capacities and longevity, etc., of the wall sections were specified, but no specific materials or fabrication techniques were identify in the contracts. Thus it would be possible to make the changeover without any violation of ongoing contracts with the customers.
On the other hand, since there is significant cost savings in the new fabrication method, does your company have an ethical obligation to inform the customers of this, and perhaps even to renegotiate supply at reduced cost, so that the customers also share in benefits of the new technique? More specifically, do you have any special duty, as a professional engineer and designer of the new technique, to be an advocate in your company for the position that customers should be fully informed of the new technique and associated cost savings?
