ENGR 107 003 Homework #5 – Ethics and Critical Thinking (40 Points)
(You may collaborate on the scenarios with your teammates. However, your final submittal must be
your own individual work. Be sure to answer all questions in #3-5 and explain your answers)
1. You are a quality control engineer for a Government program that requires using only U.S. made
parts. Your company is working with another contractor that is behind on its part of the
program. During the Critical Design Review (CDR) milestone, you notice that one of your
supplier’s has provided a part that is foreign made. The supplier’s test report shows that the
performance is identical to the U.S. equivalent part. The part is on the critical path and
procuring a new part will significantly delay your company’s delivery on the program potentially
impacting your company’s performance and the award fee it gets from the Government
customer. What do you do?
a. Say nothing and deliver the product with the foreign part included, hoping the customer won’t
notice.
b. Tell the customer but blame it on your subcontractor.
c. Since the other contractor is behind schedule anyway, quickly fix the problem with a compliant
part without letting the customer know.
d. Tell the customer about the problem, and let them decide what they want to do next.
e. Put all your efforts into finding legal loopholes in the contract your company agreed to, or in the
way it was negotiated with the customer, to avoid your company appearing to have violated the
requirement.
2. Your company buys large quantities of parts from various suppliers in a very competitive market
sector. As a professional engineer, you often get to make critical decisions on which suppliers
should be used for which parts. A new supplier rep is very eager to get the business from your
company. They invite you as their guest to an exclusive restaurant that has a waiting list of
several months and then to an expensive concert. The supplier rep says they will discuss a little
business during dinner and expense it as a business meeting. What should you do? ______ (5
Pts)
a. Do not accept any of the gifts that go beyond legitimate business entertaining, even if your
company would allow you to accept such gifts.
b. Report the offer of gifts to your company and let them decide whether or not you should accept
them.
c. Accept the gifts without telling your company, because you know that your professional
judgment about the supplier will not be biased by the gifts.
d. Tell other potential suppliers about the gifts and ask them to provide you with similar benefits
so you won’t be biased in favor of any particular supplier.
