The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results - aka Fraud

[mlthompson]

How many folks have been asked to falsify or has been faced with dilemma of falsifying inspection results? How did you deal with it? Is this a normal thing QA folks have to deal with?

I am not having an issue with my current company, but I have ran into the problems in the past. I worked at a company in So Cal, and one Monday 15 FBI agent stormed the place and took 50 boxes of documents. My boss got busted for falsifying records. I also worked in the aerospace fastener industry, and one of the competitors got busted for having an "Inspector 13" that didn't really exist. I was also interviewing for a job and passed a couple cuts of the process. When I got to interview with the president of the company, I asked point blank what my expectations where when it come to handling nonconforming material, I might have well just walked at that point because the interview was definitely over.

 

[SteelMaiden]

Re: Falsification

I've never been asked to falsify a record by someone who actually mattered in the scheme of things.

 

[Scott Catron]

Re: Falsification

How many folks have been asked to falsify or has been faced with dilemma of falsifying inspection results? How did you deal with it? Is this a normal thing QA folks have to deal with?

Some casual requests - backdating docs at the most - always answered with a "NO". It becomes a slippery slope - "Well you did it for that, why not this?"

Not worth the potential hassles.

 

[BradM]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

If one loses their integrity, they can't get it back. There is no dilemma for me. The answer is "no". Period.

I have the greatest job in the world, with some of the best people. Best of all, I can sleep well every night.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

As I muse over margaritas or just plain scotch if I'm too lazy to mix, I try to connect seemingly disparate items about various aspects of business, quality, ethics, human resources, etc. into one "grand unified theory of everything" and then discover Deming was way ahead of me with his deceptively simple "System of Profound Knowledge" (SoPK)

The point, of course, is that when ALL the members of an organization have deep knowledge about the organization, its customers, suppliers, regulators, employees, etc., they also have a pretty good understanding of the ramifications of their actions and there are no longer any gray areas about what's right or wrong.

The direct answer to the original post:
In over 40 years of experience in a variety of industries, I have never known of any business to remain in business (without a drastic change of personnel) for very long once the boss or bosses conspire to lie to and cheat their customers or regulators. The truth will always be found.

 

[RayZ-Insp]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

If one loses their integrity, they can't get it back. There is no dilemma for me. The answer is "no". Period.

I have the greatest job in the world, with some of the best people. Best of all, I can sleep well every night.

I worked in Quality for almost thirty years, I just told an Engineer last week
that I'd quit before I'd knowing let defective product leave the plant with my stamp on it, no matter who said it was okay.
If they can't respect what you do, find another company that will.

 

[Gert Sorensen]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

Wes is, as usual, right on the spot. It is short sighted and stupid to tamper with documentation, and it will put you out of business in the end......

I have worked for a company where the Plant Manager thought it was the way to go - thinking only of the bottom line for the current month. Needless to say the plant has been shut down now, and 350 persons lost their job.

He really was an incompetent and pathetic manager

 

[tyker]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

I've never been asked to falsify records but, in my 3rd party auditing days, I came across quite a few instances where records were clearly falsified and, in one case, caught a manager in the act of creating them.
It's actually quite an embarrasing situation for the auditor and a lot of care has to be taken writing the non-conformity and ensuring the facts are known and can be proven because the consequences for the guilty party can be severe.

 

[Coury Ferguson]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

I have never been asked to falsify any type of record. If that ever did happen, I would decline, based upon ethics.

 

[Phil Fields]

Re: The dilemma of Falsifying Inspection Results

I have been asked to change actual dimensions to meet the specification on first article submissions pacakges. I told the engineer in charge that I would do what ever they asked, as long as they signed the the complete submission package.
They declined. The numbers were submitted as found.

Phil