B.F. Goodrich A7D Break Case
THE B. F. GOODRICH A7D BREAK CASE
Why Should MY
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In 1967, B. F. Goodrich won a bid to produce break assemblies for a new Air Force plane. The initial design had serious flaws, which almost immediately became apparent. Instead of making the necessary revisions in design, various people involved persisted in trying to force the original design to work. When it became obvious that it wouldn't, they began falsifying test data. When engineers went to supervisors and managers with the dilemma, they were virtually told to mind their own business and to continue with what they were doing. Ultimately, Goodrich delivered a phony qualification report and defective breaks, which failed during the initial flight tests. It is difficult to imagine how so many people, including supervisors and managers, not only went along with such an irresponsible and unethical handling of the project, but actually insisted that it be handled in that manner.Given the opportunity to participate in this project, I would have bailed out of the original design as soon as its deficiencies became known. As an engineer, I would have refused to participate in the deception. As a supervisor or manager, as soon as the problems were brought to my attention I would have done everything in my power to scrap the four-disk design and put the project on the right track. There are multiple reasons for these decisions, including ethics and personal values, organizational goals, damage con
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per tantrum if his design was rejected. That should not have become an excuse for clinging to an idea that was guaranteed to have an effect opposite of everything the company was hoping to accomplish. If Sink, Van Horn, Line or Sunderman had kept the organizational goals in mind they would have imme-diately put a stop to it and put the project on the right track.
Every business needs to engage in public relations and damage control when potentially threatening situations occur. One of the best preventive steps is to follow ethical conduct and not set the stage for charges of fraud, negligence or liability. When it appears that something potentially threatening has occurred, or is occurring, a company often minimizes the damage to its image if it acknowledges the situation and it the first to admit it.
At Goodrich, despite the many test failures and complaints of engineers, the reaction of supervisors and managers was denial, denial, denial -- there is no problem! The customer was told that tests were successful. When LTV engineers came to see the new break in action, Goodrich engineers managed to conceal the actual problems. Sink told Lawson, "there's really no problem at all." When Vandivier told a senior executive, Rus
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Approximate Word count = 1632
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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