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Do we get a new one to learn in engineering school, next to the Challenger disaster, the Therac-25, and the Hyatt Regency bridge?
by ashleyn 7y ago
Do we get a new one to learn in engineering school, next to the Challenger disaster, the Therac-25, and the Hyatt Regency bridge?
- Apes 7y agoThe thing is, in each if these lessons, it's not the engineers who have anything to learn, but the people making business decisions. Every one of these stories has an engineer saying, "I think this is a bad idea," only to be overridden by someone making business decisions. There is more value from these lessons being be taught in MBAs, and I don't think they are. No amount of engineering safety can overcome unsafe business leadership.
- mannykannot 7y agoAt least in the space shuttle cases, the people overriding the concerns were themselves engineers. The idea that managers, not engineers, cause failures is simplistic. Take, for example, the Thiokol engineer who told Roger Boisjoly's wife that if the Challenger inquiry led to Thiokol's shutdown, he would leave his kids on Boisjoly's doorstep - was that sound engineering reasoning?
- salawat 7y agoApparently those weren't enough. You also forgot Galloping Girdie. The Tacoma Narrows bridge. That and the rudder reversal problems Boeing had back in the 90's.