Roxanne is a process engineer for Lepap, a large manufacturing company which makes a paper-

like product for the building industry. Roxanne is responsible for the most of the upstream end of
the process in which the feed stock is processed to produce an intermediate product. This product
is then formed into sheets of a material very similar to paper which becomes Lepap’s final product.
This product is in turn sold to another company, Tapal Sheeting which bonds the sheets to its
own product to form fire-resistant wall sheets. In order to meet the demands of Tapal, Lepap’s
process runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Quality control is vital to both Lepap and Tapal Sheeting. If the sheets produced from Lepap have
the wrong moisture ontent or density, then they will not bond properly to tapal’s material resulting
in the fire resistant wall sheets delaminating after installation. Because of the variable nature of
the feedstock used by Lepap, samples of Lepap’s final product coming off the production line are
tested every 20 minutes. If a sample fails the test, then the entire batch is dumped. When
operating normally, one batch every 2 or 3 days has to be dumped, but occasionally several hours’
worth of production may be found to be off-specification.

The quality control testing performed by Lepap consists of three simple, yet reliable tests. These
tests measure the moisture content, density and strength of the paper-like product. They are
performed by the production technicians. The technicians report their results to the duty engineer
who makes the final decision as to whether to accept or reject a batch.

One Friday morning, Roxanne is in the test room talking to Jason, the duty engineer, when the
moisture content testing apparatus breaks down while being used by Winston, a young technician
new to the job. There is no spare testing apparatus so Jason and Winston begin hurried efforts to
repair the equipment. Jason decides to keep the plant running at full capacity. He reasons that as
the plant product was on specification at the time the equipment broke it should still be okay for
the next couple of hours. They can keep producing sheets, taking samples as required every 20
minutes. Once the test equipment is fixed all they will have to do is test the backlog of samples
collected during the day, ensuring that the sheets meet specifications. If any sample is off
specification then that batch of sheets can be dumped. Jason is under pressure to get the
equipment fixed as Friday’s production must be shipped off to Tapal Sheeting by early Friday
evening.

Just as she is leaving for home later on Friday afternoon, Roxanne is stopped in the hallway by
Jason. He tells her that Winston’s just been on the phone to tell him about the testing equipment.
‘It’s fixed and the samples show that Friday’s batches are acceptable.’ Roxanne is only at home
for a couple of hours before she is called back into work because of the apparent failure of a pump
in the upstream end of the plant. As she arrives at the plant, she sees the truck carrying the day’s
production to Tapal Sheeting leaving the site.

Roxanne’s pumping problem is quickly resolved and she prepares to return home. On her way
out of the plant she learns that the moisture content testing unit has only just been fixed in the
last few minutes. She also notices that all moisture content sample data sheets have been filled
in for Friday including those for batches produced while the testing equipment was out of
operation. Her interest piqued, she passes through the dispatch office and finds out that Jason
authorized the shipment of the Friday’s production of Tapal Sheeting, certifying that It meets
specifications.

Roxanne is now worried. Why was she told that the moisture content testing unit was fixed in the
afternoon when it was only fixed in the evening, hours later? Is someone lying? Was the moisture
content data falsified? If so, by whom? Should the shipment have been released to Tapal? Jason’s
shift has ended and he has left for a long weekend out of town. Winston’s shift team also gone
home for the day. Adrian is now the shift engineer.

What should Roxanne do?