Reducing waste, unethical?

Unethical issues affect all forms of engineering.  Unethical and engineering disasters are usually considered to be because of human factors, design flaws or extreme conditions. Because of the relationship an industrial engineer plays on the human factors side, ethical issues still plague industrial engineering field.

Challenger Explosion

When we examine ethical issues we discover that they are caused by a few things. Sometimes it’s caused because of an insufficient amount of testing and knowledge. Other times it’s caused by negligence and or errors in general. The biggest problem, and more often than not, is caused because of insufficient knowledge, lack of testing, or lying about the test results.

If we examine the most horrific disaster in the 80’s, the Challenger, we discover that the reason it occurred was because of the o-rings. The o-rings we designed to operate within a certain temperatures. However, at the time of the launch the o-rings were exposed to temperatures well below the designated operating range. This is a result of human error, carelessness, underestimation and insufficient testing. NASA engineers did preform test on the o-rings and people knew about the test results but chose to ignore it, at a deadly cost. This is still a problem today except we are choosing to cheat tests and ignore results in order to reduce production waste in a manufacturing setting.

Human factors engineers, a division of industrial engineering, still deals with testing and interpreting results every day. A lot of times, especially in today’s society, bosses want to produce more of a product at a cheaper manufacturing cost. This requires industrial engineers to preform tests and come up with ways to cut those costs using the test results. Cutting cost leads to cutting corners, the “do whatever it takes mentality” is crippling engineer’s and their ethical stances.

In general engineers are attacking the manufacturing world by reducing wastes and improving processes. The problem I see, is how much waste is too much waste? What I mean by that is we are trying to cut out so much waste to improve processes and testing that we are ignoring and cheating test results with products. What good is a waffle iron that can be made at half the cost but causes a lot of burns to the people using it because of the material we use? It’s worth nothing and unethical to produce a product that is not safe. Even if engineers did not know about an issue it is still unethical to produce objects that can harm the public.  What I see happening in today’s market and manufacturing facilities is that some businesses want to achieve a efficiency level at all costs, even if  it may be unethical. I think it’s time we take a step back and do a gut check on what's really important. What’s important is the safety of the public and the users who use these products. Cutting corners and cheating test results to come out in your favor or giving your products unfair advantages when testing them is unethical.

In conclusion, how much waste is to much? At what point is the product being undermined by reducing things that are considered a waste?  We need to look at the big picture and focus on producing products in an ethical way that that is also efficient. What I suggest is a standard for all businesses. Also, all businesses should have an ethical code and that code should be displayed in their mission statement, as well as presented in a way that all employees know that their company is being ethical. It also holds companies accountable, ignorance is not an excuse and too many times businesses get off easy because they "didn't know". Businesses want to make money, same with all of us, but at what cost do you want to make your money? Engineering ethics is a tough situation because being ethical can be costly. However, being unethical has proven to cost businesses more than just money but also their reputation. 

Genetically Modified Foods

With a longer living and growing population the world needs more food. Not only is population a problem but food prices are at record highs due to fuel prices and other commodities. One way we are trying to deal with this is by genetically engineering our food.

Genetic engineering is the process of transferring specific traits, or genes, from one organism into a different organism; the result is a genetically modified organism. Bio engineering food is a fairly new field. Basically engineers cause a mutation in the DNA that changes some of the plants properties. Genetically engineering food could be very beneficial. Food prices, fuel and cost of pesticides are on the rise and because of that, so is the cost of food.  As an attempt to reduce cost we have begun to study and genetically modify food.  

Colorado Potato Beetle

Civilizations need food in order to thrive and survive. By using science and technology engineers are modifying the DNA of plants and creating a better crop that can have higher yields per acre. This is no different than what we do today. We use science and technology to create pesticides to get rid of insects and pest that damage crops.  For example, the Colorado potato beetle causes extensive damage to potato crops every year. Therefore, the potato was modified to produce bacillus thuringiensis, which is a toxin that kills the beetle. As a result of genetically modified potatoes, we reduce the amount of fuel we use and pesticide costs because farmers will not have to spray the fields or pay for expensive pesticides.

Tractor Mounted Sprayer

As I stated above, a direct benefit of having genetically modified food is that were able to produce higher yields and decrease the cost using the same amount of  land. Additionally, more benefits include a reduction of soil erosion and runoff. By genetically engineering crops to produce toxins that kill off pests we do not need to use pesticides. It is a well-known fact that what gets sprayed in the field does not always stay in the field. A lot of the time pesticides end up in rivers and streams due to run off.  By genetically engineering our foods we could reduce the amount of pesticides and chemical runoff  that we currently have. We could also reduce the amount of soil erosion because we won’t have to work the land as much with genetically modified crops.

Genetically Modified Strawberries

Some of the concerns I have about genetically modified food, is how safe is it to eat. After all what good is food if  it’s toxic. Which is exactly what the New Leaf Potato was. This was the potato that was modified to produce the toxin that killed the Colorado potatoe beetle. Furthermore, the Colorado potato beetle is such a problem today because it has naturally mutated and became resistant to the pesticides we used on it.  Could the beetle mutate again and become resistant to the genetically modified potatoes? Also, by causing mutations will we accelerate the rate at which the plant naturally mutates and changes to the environment? If so, what are some of the potential problems with that?  By modifying plants we could also accidentally cross pollinate with other plants and potentially create “superweeds” which could be hard to control. The biggest problem of all could be allergenic. By genetically modifying foods we use “DNA parts” from other plants. What happens if we use a piece of DNA from a nut and put it in other types of plants? This could be a problem for people with nut allergies. There seems to be a lot of questions that have yet to be answered about genetically engineered foods. The benefits seem to outweigh the consequences but that’s because we have no results of what the potential benefits are. As of now I do not see how we can keep genetically modifying foods and putting it in the market for people until we conduct more studies and better understand the consequences. We need to continue to look for other ways to deal with pests and crops. Until we have results on genetically modified foods and how we regulate whats safe, I do not think modifying our crops is the way to go.


Sources:

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/ge/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/opinion/genetically-engineered-food-for-all.html

http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/cpb.htm

Universities and Companies Working Together at Last

The great thing about being an engineering student are the projects you get to work on.  Sometimes projects are made up just to get you to think. Other times they can be real but not involve the actual company. Finally, there are real projects in classes that involve real companies. These are the best types of projects because they provide the most learning experience and often create new products/ideas.

Recently, industrial engineering students from Louisiana State University have developed a new way to preform airplane maintenance. Students in Industrial Engineering 4599  have created the Track Vac 2.0 for Aeroframe which will reduce the amount time and people needed to clean seat tracks on cargo planes. The device was created in a senior design course at Louisiana State University. According to Joshua Bergeron and his article, general manager Mark Redman of Aeroframe states “Usually it takes 10-12 guys to clean the plane”.  “Now the process only requires one person and the vacuum”.  Trac Vac uses brushes and fluids to loosen debris that builds up after use. Trac Vac is a perfect example of what companies and universities can achieve if they work together.

TracK Vac 2.0

One thing that is extremely important is how universities provide real life experience to students. Louisiana State University did exactly that and spent zero dollars doing it. The Track Vac 2.0 was entirely funded by Aerofram. Furthermore, Aeroframe plans to pay Louisiana State University for the design of the project.

This is a prime example of the knowledge and skills that are present at universities. Many products and ideas have come from universities in collaboration with professional businesses. I believe that by working with professional companies and universities we can develop  new products and ideas. Personally, I do not think universities and businesses are taking advantage of this enough. Here are some of the benefits they are missing out on.

The first benefit of companies working with universities is that students have the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom. Yes, they are still taking credits and in a class or lab but working on real projects and problems will test students and their problem solving skills. Students do not get enough real projects in school, the made up ones professors give don’t cut it. Students will be more engaged and get more out of college if presented with real projects.

The second benefit is for the company. Some companies do not have the resources, time or knowledge available to solve problems that may be nagging them. The question is what do universities have? Universities have both time and the resources (students) to develop ideas for potential companies. What university would not want the opportunity to enhance the learning process and make a real difference in a company? Universities also benefit because it gives them the opportunity to network with potential students, organizations, and boast about their accomplishments. Also, just like the Track Vac example, it gives universities the opportunity to earn money.

Another benefit is that both universities, students and companies all benefit.  Colleges can earn money for their ideas that students have developed, students earn real life experience and companies solve a problem they couldn't solve before. It’s a win win for all parties when using universities to develop ideas for companies.There is a vast amount of knowledge and people in the university system that needs to be funneled. Companies need to start working more with universities so we all can benefit.  By working with universities companies are not only creating better students and enhancing the learning experience they are also learning and improving their own processes.  

Sources: http://www.lsureveille.com/news/engineering-students-create-vacuum-that-will-change-airplane-clean-up-1.2618828

Circuit Construction Kit Review

The flash application, circuit construction kit version 3.2, is a great engineering tool. I have always had trouble visualizing and making circuits work correctly.  The University of Colorado at Boulder has developed a great tool to help engineers understand circuits. (http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/circuit-construction-kit-dc).

The circuit construction kit is available as a flash download.  Using flash programs are usually a problem for me because they don’t download and function correctly with my computer. This one downloaded and worked in a flash.

Immediately upon downloading, the application starts to offer you help creating circuits. By help I mean it says click here to start, which is about all you’re going to get. The program is entitled to help people understand circuits and develop circuits themselves. Users should already have some background knowledge about circuits. That being said, I think just by playing around and having some basic knowledge of electricity, that we all learned in middle school, is sufficient for using this application. Overall, it was fairly easy to download, for free I might add, and easy to use.

Circuit Interface and Toolbox

When using the application you can create circuits by adding wires, resistors, switches and power sources (batteries) into circuits. The various devices you can add to the circuit are represented with icons on the right hand side. The icons are easy to access and presented in a user friendly manner (see interface picture on the right). The side screen, where the icons are, acts like a tool bench for all your tools. Select the icon and click where you want it on the page and it’s there!  Other applications I have used were very difficult to find what you wanted and hard to implement into the circuit. Another thing the circuit construction kit does is it provides virtual tools that can be used to measure resistance and current. Having these measurement devices are very handy and useful for a real world application. Circuit construction does a great job presenting everything you need in an easy to use fashion.

Short Circuited (ie. Exploded Battery)

Another thing I liked about circuit construction was its flexibility. It’s possible to change just about everything in the circuit. As an engineer nothing is ever fixed so it’s important to be able to change the resistance of a resistor or the voltage of the power source. If you want to change the voltage, resistance or remove an item it only takes a click of the mouse. One flaw I did notice was in order to change the resistance in the wires you had to go under the advanced button and change it, unlike the simple mouse click it took to change the voltage or resistance elsewhere. The main thing circuit construction isn't, is elaborate. The application seems a bit elementary. It is that way in order to make it easy to use. The application works in general for simple circuits and more general stuff but I wouldn’t recommend testing and designing an Xbox circuit on it. That being said, the application does a really nice job interacting with changes you make and representing that in the circuit. You can always tell if the circuit is working correctly by the flowing blue balls (electrons) and if the light bulb you connected to the circuit is illuminated.  When you make changes to a working circuit the result is instantly known. As a result, you can test out a developing circuit idea you may have. The application clearly demonstrates what happens when resistance is increased, or the light is hooked up in series by dimming or increasing brightness in the light bulb. It even shows you when you cause a short circuit (see above picture). The changes made to the circuit are instantly represented in the circuit and indicates what is happening visually by the light bulb and electrons in the circuit. The flexibility of the application and instant notification are great advantages for this application.

Whether you’re attempting to replicate an actual circuit for a development or just trying to understand a problem with a circuit, this application is a great start for engineers who are involved with circuits. The circuit construction kit is easy to use, flexible and provides instant visual feedback. It has definitely helped me throughout my career. The circuit construction kit will help you understand circuits and help prove out circuit designs because it allows you to create actual circuits in a virtual world for no cost at all.

What is industrial engineering?

Do you like knowing how things work? Do you enjoy the rewarding feeling of success? If so, industrial engineering is for you. Industrial engineering is one of the most diverse careers in the engineering field. As an industrial engineer you can work as a human factors engineer in an amusement park, as a lean coordinator for a manufacturing plant, as a plant manager, a consultant for an engineering firm or even start your own firm. These are just a few of the possible careers choices an industrial engineer has. The opportunities are endless. Industrial engineering happens everywhere from the manufacturing floors to service industries like health care.  The fact that you can earn a degree in industrial engineering and work in a manufacturing setting or service industries is just awesome. Industrial engineering offers a lot of variety and career opportunities, which is one of the reasons I chose this career.

What does an Industrial engineer do? Industrial engineers, also known as IE’s, look for ways to make products/services faster, cheaper, and easier by improving processes and quality.  A process is how something is done. Improving processes does not specifically mean improving how consumer parts or services are being made, although 90% of it is.

Improving processes are a big key to industrial engineering. How does an IE know a process needs to be changed? A big step in industrial engineering is understanding the process itself. By understanding a process an IE can identify areas of improvement.  For example, I worked as an industrial engineering intern for Daktronics where one of our products was consistently being built upside down. It occurred maybe 30% of the time when we built that particular product.  When we examined the product we noticed there were no indicators for what side was up or down and either way it looked the same. This was a good indicator as to why our products were being built wrong. Not only did we change the process of the assembly, we also changed the design by adding slots that would only allow the assembly to be assembled one way which prevented it from being built upside down. It also saved Daktronics money by eliminating rework. Sometimes changing a process is just common sense. Other times a reoccurring problem may force the change.

Improving a process can also involve improving where and how we work. Sometimes workstations are designed without the consideration of the people who are required to use them. This is a classic example. One of the things an IE looks for when attempting to improve a process is the work environment itself. A lot of the time it involves making a process more ergonomic. Ergonomics is based on making work requirements more comfortable and efficient for the user. By having more ergonomic processes it is possible to decrease costs and increase capacity because it makes the work much easier to perform.  Ergonomics may not sound like much, but ergonomics are everywhere. For more information on ergonomics refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics.

As I mentioned, an IE’s main focus is on improving processes, which may happen through ergonomics, but more commonly they improve the process of how products are made.  Why would anyone care if we improved processes? Well for starters the computer you’re reading this on wouldn’t have been affordable because the processes used to make it would have been very expensive and outdated.  Improving processes are important to businesses and consumers. From a business stand point, IE’s can reduce the cost of operations by improving the processes, thus reducing cost and leading to higher profit margins. If cost to businesses are reduced then the costs to consumers will also be reduced. It's a win win situation. IE’s benefit both the business world and consumers who buy their products.

In conclusion,  IE's improve processes which reduces costs and increases profit margin. Industrial engineering is a great career opportunity because it is a very diverse field and offers many different opportunities. Because it is so diverse I have mainly talked about improving processes in a manufacturing setting but there are many other applications of industrial engineering.  If you would like more information on industrial engineering visit the professional organization of industrial engineering at http://www.iienet2.org/Default.aspx.