FLOW CHARTING Flow charts are very familiar to engineering students.
They are most often used in developing computer programs, also fi nd application in other engineering disci- plines and are often used to describe business processes and procedures. In engi- neering ethics, fl ow charting will be helpful for analyzing a variety of cases, especially those in which there is a sequence of events to be considered or a series of conse- quences that fl ows from each decision. An advantage of using a fl ow chart to ana- lyze ethical problems is that it gives a visual picture of a situation and allows you to readily see the consequences that fl ow from each decision.
As with the line-drawing technique described in the previous section, there is no unique fl ow chart that is applicable to a given problem. In fact, different fl ow charts can be used to emphasize different aspects of the same problem. As with line drawing, it will be essential to be as objective as possible and to approach fl ow chart- ing honestly. Otherwise, it will be possible to draw any conclusion you want, even one that is clearly wrong.
We can illustrate this technique by applying a simple fl ow chart to a disaster that happened at Union Carbide’s plant in Bhopal, India, where MIC, a toxic sub- stance, was mixed with water, creating toxic fumes. One possible fl ow chart, illus- trated in Figure 4.6 , deals with the decision-making process that might have gone on at Union Carbide as they decided whether or not to build a plant at Bhopal. This chart emphasizes safety issues for the surrounding community. As indicated on the chart, there were several paths that might have been taken and multiple decisions that had to be made. The fl ow chart helps to visualize the consequences of each decision and indicates both the ethical and unethical choices. Of course, the fl ow chart used for a real ethical problem will be much larger and more complex than this example in order to thoroughly cover the entire problem.
Another possible fl ow chart is shown in Figure 4.7 . This chart deals with the decisions required during the maintenance of the fl are tower at the Bhopal plant, an essential safety system. It considers issues of whether the MIC tank was fi lled at the time that the fl are tower was taken off-line for maintenance, whether other safety systems were operating when the fl are tower was taken out of operation, and whether the remaining safety systems were suffi cient to eliminate potential prob- lems. Using such a fl ow chart, it is possible to decide whether the fl are tower can be taken off-line for maintenance or whether it should remain operating.
The key to effective use of fl ow charts for solving ethical problems is to be crea- tive in determining possible outcomes and scenarios and also to not be shy about getting a negative answer and deciding to stop the project.
PPPN
5P 2 3 1,4
Sell defective products
Products should be as advertised
Figure 4.5 Final version of the Pentium chip line-drawing example, with the problem added to the line.
Chapter 4 Ethical Problem-Solving Techniques 63
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