A common conflict that arises between manufacturers and
material engineers is when the engineer suggests a material or technique that
raises the price of the production, or the increases the time it takes to
produce a product.
A typical persuasion scenario for a material engineer is
when they attempt to convince a manufacturer that a certain technique or
material is correct for the item being produced. Let’s say the company in
question is producing iPhone 6 cases, a material engineer might make his case
in the following way:
Dear Mr. Doe,
I’ve reviewed the requirements for the new iPhone case you’re
planning to produce and I have thought of some different materials which would
serve you nicely. First option is a simply injection-molding some polyurethane.
This route would be cheap, but it wouldn’t be as strong as other options. It
would cost around $XXXX for the tooling and around ¢0.X for each unit produced.
The second option involves the use of a high-impact polymer which can still be
injection molded. While this route would be more expensive, you could charge
more for the product, and the actual case would be extremely durable. An impact
resistant polymer like the one used by the Mag-pul® Corporation would be the
optimal material and you would even be able to claim the case is constructed
from military grade materials. The tooling would be about the same, but the
price of production per unit would increase.
Analysis: While there are several topics of invention used
in this example, the major one has to stem from the promotion of the impact-resistant
polymer. The engineer is stating that it would be advantageous to take the more
expensive route to ensure quality. He uses an authority in the field of
polymers to strengthen his argument. The engineer also uses definition to an
extents when he described the type of polymer he has in mind. Virtue also
weaves it’s way through the argument; although not explicitly stated, the
engineer asserts that making an inferior product which is cheaper is less virtuous that producing a high
quality (although more expensive) product.
I was intrigued by how you mentioned virtue in your analysis. Sometimes I feel like manufacturers just care about assembly-lining out as many products as possible for as cheap as possible...but that's not true for every manufacturer. It was also really interesting that you talked about how producing a better-quality product (even while charging more for it) is actually more virtuous. Nice example! Lots to think about!
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