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

Conclusions of the empirical study
engineers have to face when making a radical design will be more of the
operationalisation II kind than of the operationalisation I kind. There are few or
no options given by the current regulative framework as to what choices can be
made regarding operationalisations. When making trade-offs in radical design
work it is often impossible to refer to minimal requirements given in a
regulative framework. Second, because engineers cannot refer to regulative
frameworks when working on a radical design they will, in general, refer more to
internal design team norms. If there are no pre-existing norms then norms will
be developed during the design process, the design teams members will use
their education, design experience and personal experience to develop internal
design team norms.
I will now give some empirical data as to why regulative frameworks can be
expected to exist for most products and processes and, hence are available for
most normal design processes. Nothing in the definition of normal design given
in section 2.3.1 indicates that a regulative framework is necessary for a design to
be a normal design. It is possible to imagine a normal design without a
regulative framework. Examples of normal designs made without a regulative
framework can be found in history. Pressure vessels for steam engines existed
and a normal configuration and working principle were established long before a
regulative framework was formulated. 4
In practice, however, it can be expected that a regulative framework exists for
most normal designs. In the European Union, the main goal of standardisation
is to ensure a free market and to remove technical barriers for trade within the
EU [European Committee, 1999]. Besides the goal of supporting a free market,
standardisation ‘promotes safety, allows interoperability of products, systems
and services, and promotes common technical understanding’ [www.cenorm.be].
The “New Approach” has been formulated in 1985 to make free trade possible
within the EU, before this specific products had to be approved. This was very
time consuming, because a consensus between different countries on every
product had to be obtained. Under the New Approach, general and goal oriented
requirements were formulated for product groups like machinery, pressure
vessels and toys [www.evd.nl]. 5 If products or product types comply with the
general requirements written down in EU directives, then they obtain a CE
mark. Products that have obtained a CE mark are allowed to enter the EU
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4 The first version of a boiler code was issued in France in 1823. Regulative frameworks for
boilers were developed later in other countries, for example 1838 in the US [Burke, 1966]
5 The principles of the New Approach are not followed in sectors where there was advanced EC
regulation before the New Approach was formulated in 1985. Examples of these sectors include
pharmaceutical products, chemical products and motorized vehicles [European Committee,
1999].
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