Avoiding Disasters in Engineering
All engineering is based on risks and hazards. Nothing is perfect. A prototype still contains lots of errors. On lower level engineering projects, these may not be so harmful but on a higher level project they can be deadly. In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during launch, taking the lives of six astronauts and one teacher. Questions arose about what factors led to this disaster. I will discuss these factors in terms of general engineering disasters.
In an article “Explaining Disasters” (Harris 1995), three factors are discussed which cause disasters: bad management, engineering faults and bad ethics. Success for any company depends on good management. A communication gap between management and the employees is the biggest factor for destroying any project. Harris’ 1995 article reported that the engineers alerted Thiokol managers one year before the Challenger disaster about problems with the O rings seal. Thiokol managers ignored the engineers’ requests for delays to the launch and the atmosphere between the managers and engineers was tense. Employees felt that they could not express their concerns freely. The behaviour of Thiokol managers demonstrated bad ethics towards their employees.
Thiokol managers informed NASA about the Space Shuttle design flaws, but NASA managers were pressurised for quick success. NASA was not pleased with Thiokol’s “no launch” decision and pressurised Thiokol into launching the Shuttle. Thiokol did not want to be negative with this customer so Thiokol also ignored their engineers’ requests. Neither Thiokol nor NASA informed the astronauts about the O ring seal problem. If they had informed them before the launch this disaster might not have occurred. Bad ethics are evident here
Lot of companies have bad ethics and bad management. What if Thiokol managers had worked on their engineer’s request? Might they have designed a flawless version of the Space Shuttle? There are lots of examples where
In an article “Explaining Disasters” (Harris 1995), three factors are discussed which cause disasters: bad management, engineering faults and bad ethics. Success for any company depends on good management. A communication gap between management and the employees is the biggest factor for destroying any project. Harris’ 1995 article reported that the engineers alerted Thiokol managers one year before the Challenger disaster about problems with the O rings seal. Thiokol managers ignored the engineers’ requests for delays to the launch and the atmosphere between the managers and engineers was tense. Employees felt that they could not express their concerns freely. The behaviour of Thiokol managers demonstrated bad ethics towards their employees.
Thiokol managers informed NASA about the Space Shuttle design flaws, but NASA managers were pressurised for quick success. NASA was not pleased with Thiokol’s “no launch” decision and pressurised Thiokol into launching the Shuttle. Thiokol did not want to be negative with this customer so Thiokol also ignored their engineers’ requests. Neither Thiokol nor NASA informed the astronauts about the O ring seal problem. If they had informed them before the launch this disaster might not have occurred. Bad ethics are evident here
Lot of companies have bad ethics and bad management. What if Thiokol managers had worked on their engineer’s request? Might they have designed a flawless version of the Space Shuttle? There are lots of examples where
References: 1) Charles E Harris, Jr (1995). Explaining Disasters: The Case for Preventive Ethics. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. 14(2) pp 22-27. 2) IET (2006). IET Handbook of Learning Outcomes for BEng and MEng Degree Programmes. [Online] Stevenage: IET. Available from http://www.theiet.org/careers/accreditation/academic/process/ Accessed 8th October 2009.