All My Sons: A Short Ethical Case Study

The 1948 film All My Sons, or at least segments of it, should be required viewing for manufacturing and quality professionals and executives. Based on the 1948 play by Arthur Miller, it’s about a defense company run by Herb Deever (played by Frank Conroy) and Joe Keller (Edward G. Robinson) that turns out a batch of parts for installation in Army Air Force warplanes. The foreman, who is also the government inspector, wants to reject the parts because of defects that, while not visible to the naked eye, show up in X-rays. (Industrial radiography began during the 1920s when sufficiently robust X-ray tubes became available.2)  The inspector had previously warned Keller that he had been cutting the process too fine, but to no avail.

In All My Sons, Keller presumes on his long friendship with Deever to convince the other to commit a crime that results in the death of U.S. service personnel and the loss of valuable aircraft. Then Keller betrays Deever by committing perjury when he denies that he did this, thus proving further that he was never Deever’s friend.

Deever and Keller are afraid that, if they reject the parts, the financial losses will bankrupt them. Deever reminds Keller that willful delivery of nonconforming parts to the government is a crime, to which Keller replies, “Only if we get caught.” Keller sounds a lot like a gangster in this and other scenes, which comes as no surprise because Robinson portrayed such characters in several other movies. Keller finally prevails on Deever to ship the parts and later tells him by telephone that he will take full responsibility. As a result, American pilots are killed by their own aircraft, and Deever goes to prison after Keller denies any role in the decision. The entire sequence lasts about eight minutes and shows clearly what happens when people take ethical shortcuts.

It doesn’t matter whether the manufacturing or quality professional has known his or her friend for decades, or has worked for the employer for decades. An employer or supervisor can’t order a subordinate to commit a dishonest action. There are certainly remedies available if the superior or employer retaliates against somebody who, for example, refuses to pencil-whip or simulate quality data for an inspection that never took place. 

In contrast, CNBC reported “Boeing orders, deliveries dry up in January as plane-maker grapples with latest Max crisis.”6

Friends don’t ask friends to ship nonconforming product

What would have happened if Deever and Keller had rejected the nonconforming parts? Maybe they would have gone out of business, but Deever wouldn’t have gone to prison. Maybe when the public found out that they had done the right thing despite the cost, their reputation would have brought in a lot more business because customers could rely on them for ethical behavior.

All My Sons isn’t exactly fiction, either. It is based on a real scandal in which the Curtiss Aeronautical plant in Lockland, Ohio, sold defective engines for Army Air Force warplanes. “After investigation, it was later revealed that Wright company officials at Lockland had conspired with civilian technical advisers and Army inspection officers to approve substandard or defective aircraft engines for military use.”3 Future president Harry S. Truman played a role in the investigation.4

1. Cohen, Rebecca; Blackman, Jay; and Dilanian, Ken. “Justice Department investigating door plug blowout on Alaska Airlines flight.” NBC News. March 9, 2024.
2. American Institute of Nondestructive Testing. “The Evolution of X-Ray Technology and Beginnings of NDT.” American Institute of Nondestructive Testing. May 13, 2021.
3. Wikipedia. “Curtiss-Wright.” Wikipedia
4. Wilkinson, Stephan. “The Scandal That Led To Harry S. Truman Becoming President and Marilyn Monroe Getting Married.” HistoryNet. March 13, 2024.
5. Johnson & Johnson. “Tylenol Tampering Incidents and Recall, 1982.” Johnson & Johnson.
6. Josephs, Leslie. “Boeing orders, deliveries dry up in January as plane-maker grapples with latest Max crisis.” CNBC. Feb. 13, 2024.

منبع: https://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/management-column/all-my-sons-short-ethical-case-study-050124.html

Approving substandard parts isn’t the only way companies can get in trouble. When it comes to counterfeit parts, 18 U.S. Code section 2320—“Trafficking in counterfeit goods or services”—warns that it’s a federal felony to traffic “…in goods or services knowing that such good or service is a counterfeit military good or service the use, malfunction, or failure of which is likely to cause serious bodily injury or death, the disclosure of classified information, impairment of combat operations, or other significant harm to a combat operation, a member of the Armed Forces, or to national security….”

The current alleged quality problems with the Boeing 737 underscore the importance of zero tolerance for poor quality. No manufacturing or quality professional should ever compromise on this issue. Most importantly, the potential consequences to customers but also to the organization are simply not worth the risk.

Johnson & Johnson’s reputation was enhanced enormously when it recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol after, through no fault of its own, a criminal poisoned some bottles on store shelves.5 This incident is, by the way, why we now have seals on medications and food products that show clearly that the containers haven’t been opened.

Regarding the door-plug blowout on an Alaskan Airlines flight in January 2024, NBC News reported that a Federal Aviation Administration audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems—which put the plane at the center of January’s incident—“found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”1 This is but the latest situation in which failure to ensure quality has resulted in a disaster that proved far more costly than containment followed by closed-loop corrective action would have been upfront.

What, therefore, should a manufacturing or quality professional do if asked by a supervisor or employer to falsify quality data, skip an inspection, or otherwise cut corners to get product out the door? There may be a legal obligation to report this if it involves a government contract. A professional engineer may have an ethical obligation to report an unsafe condition if his or her employer or client is unwilling to correct it.  The National Society of Professional Engineers’ Code of Ethics says, “If engineers’ judgment is overruled under circumstances that endanger life or property, they shall notify their employer or client and such other authority as may be appropriate.”

A later scene in the movie shows Keller admitting to a customer that he didn’t follow the customer’s specifications: “If I followed those high-browed blueprints of yours, we’d have gone broke.” However, he does offer to repair defective civilian products at no cost.

The bottom line is that someone who asks you to become a party to an unethical or even criminal act is not your friend; he or she would have otherwise not tried to involve you.

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