Your company wants to enter a new market by reverse-engineering a popular folding kitchen step stool whose patent recently has expired. Your analysis shows that by simplifying the design and making all the components from injection-molded PVC plastic you can produce a similar product at a substantially reduced cost. However, when you make a plastic prototype and test its performance you find that it is not as strong and does not work as smoothly as your competitor’s original stool. Your boss is anxious to get your design into production because she has promised the company president a new high-profit item by the end of this quarter. What do you do?

a. Release the design. Nearly everything is made from plastic today, and people don’t expect plastic items to work well. You get what you pay for in the commercial market.

b. Release the design but put a warning label on it, limiting its use to people weighing less than 150 pounds.

c. Quickly try to find a different, stronger plastic that can still be injection molded and adjust the production cost estimate upward.

d. Tell your boss that your tests show the final product to be substandard and ask if she wants to put the company’s reputation at risk. If she presses you to release your design, make an appointment to meet with the company president.

Use the Engineering Ethics Matrix.