Real-Life Decision Making
The large chemical company you work for ships large amounts of chemicals
overseas using tankers. Each tanker contains up to 30 tanks -- holding about
20 cubic tons of chemicals. It's your job to test the condition of the
tank before the pure chemical is placed in it for delivery. The tanks are
always cleaned out first, but sometimes the cleaners do a lousy job.
If they're clean, the company knows any impurities in the chemical
are the result of processing.
If the tank is contaminated, then management has to decide whether to clean
the tank again.
If they decide to clean it, they know the chemicals will get to their destination
in a pure state -- which is very important in some cases.
If they decide not to clean it -- and the chemical becomes so contaminated
that it is not usable -- then the chemical company is held responsible.
Sounds like an easy choice, right?
Wrong.
Every hour a ship is docked at your company's wharf costs big money.
Delays in scheduling for recleaning have to be justified with a lot of explanation
and paperwork. It's not a decision to be made lightly.
Here's how you know if the tanks are contaminated:
You send surveyors out to the tanks to go inside them and wipe the walls
with a clean cloth that has been dipped in the pure chemical that is about
to be shipped. The surveyor brings the cloth back to you and you test it for
contamination. You're looking for chemicals like sulfur, or volatile
organic materials that could cause a chemical reaction.
There you are, on a quiet Sunday with no managers around, just a skeleton
crew. A ship comes in, and you send the surveyors out to the ship for a sample.
It's bad news -- the sample comes back contaminated with everything imaginable,
metals, iron and kerosene.
Every hour the ship is docked costs your company $12,000. You can't
get any of your supervisors on the telephone. You have to make a decision.
What do you do?