Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

Design of a lightweight trailer
Figure 7.1 a and b: Loading and unloading a bulk load. Goods on pallets are
loaded from the door at the back. The floor slides to the front with the pallets on
it [pictures courtesy of Ruflo].
The requirements for the trailer were established in the first meeting. This was
done in co-operation between customer and engineering company, where the
customer decided what to incorporate in the design requirements. The engineers
introduced ideas and arguments about what requirements to include. The
customer decided to follow the engineers’ ideas if he was convinced they were
workable. According to the engineers the customer had to decide what the
requirements would be because the customer would pay for the project. However,
this view is a bit simplistic: the customer came to the engineering company for
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