Scenario: Anna is working as a junior process engineer for a large factory (here called Factory A) that makes wood plastic composite sheets for the car industry. Anna is responsible for the upstream end of the process where the feedstock is processed to fabricate an intermediate product. This product then needs to be formed into a sheet material which would be the final product of Factory A. This final product is soled to Factory B which would process the sheet and form the car interior parts. To meet the demand of Factory B, Factory A process line runs 24/7. Moisture content is one of the most important parameters of the final product of factory as low or high moisture content of the wood sheets would result in failure of processing it in Factory B. So, to control the quality of the final product, Factory A takes a sample every 30 minutes from the end product line and check its moisture level using a special measurement device. If a sample fails, the test then the entire batch should be dumped. In a normal operation mode, one batch every 3 or 4 days has to be dumped, while in some cases, several hours' worth of production may be labeled as off-specification. One Friday morning Anna is in the test room talking to John, the duty engineer, when the moisture content testing device stops working while being used by David, a young technician new to the job. As there is no spare testing device, the current device has to be repaired immediately. John decides to keep the production line running at full capacity. He believes that since the final product was on specification at the time the test device broke it should operate just fine for the next couple of hours. In this way, they can keep producing the sheets and continue sampling every 30 minutes. As soon as the test device was fixed they will test the collected samples and make sure that the wood sheets meet specifications. If any sample is off-specification, then that batch of sheets would be dumped. David is under pressure to fix the test device as Friday's end products have to be sent to Factory B by Friday evening. At 4:45 pm, John calls Anna and tells her that David just informed him that he fixed the test device and all the final products of the day have passed the moisture content test. Anan leaves the Factory at 5:00 pm and around 6:pm she receives a call to go back to the Factory due to the failure of a pump in the upstream end of the production line. On her way to the Factory, she sees the truck taking the days' production to Factory B. After fixing the pump issue, a worker tells Anna that the moisture testing device has only just been fixed in the last few minutes. She also finds out that all the moisture content sample data sheets have been filled in for Friday including those for the batches produced while the testing device was broken. She stops by the dispatch office and finds that John authorized the shipment of the Friday's final products to Factory B, certifying that all the wood sheets passed all the tests. John's shift has ended and he has left for a long weekend out of town. David's shift team has also gone home for the day. Sara is now the shift engineer. Anna is now upset and worried. Why was she told that the test device was fixed in the afternoon while it was only fixed in the evening, hours later? Is someone lying? Was the moisture content data made-up? If so, by whom? Should the shipment have been released to Factory B? Assignment: Suggests 6-8 courses of actions that Anna could follow in a short individual report (max. 2 pages)
