Author Archives → KLdE

Design For Product Safety with Ken d’Entremont: Video 4– No Shame In Recalls, UNLESS…

There should NOT automatically be shame with doing a product-safety recall. This is especially true with new and innovative products.

This is, of course, UNLESS the recall is the result of:

1. Fundamental errors in product development — 2+2=5
2. A repeat of an earlier problem — a re-recall
3. Not identifying, accepting, and fixing a problem QUICKLY — slow reporting

Be sure that your company encourages AND rewards ethical behavior.

A company must be competent, learn from its mistakes, and act with speed and integrity to help prevent consumers from being harmed by products.

Tell me what YOU think.

“Design For Product Safety with Ken d’Entremont”–Video 3: I Don’t Care About HEALTH, I Only Care About SAFETY!

The public does not understand the differences between Health and Safety.

During COVID-19, people would exhort others to “stay safe.” What they really meant was to “stay healthy.”

The health profession has accepted, authoritative Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) for Cadmium, for example. Safety has no such black-and-white acceptable-risk levels.

Consequently, safety is quite hard to address and decide when a product is “safe enough.” So, when the term “Health and Safety” is mentioned, health is latched onto while safety is forgotten.

In future videos, I will address the topic of “Health VERSUS Safety.”

“Design For Product Safety with Ken d’Entremont”–Video 1: Introduction

DFPS Video 1: Introduction

I’m Ken d’Entremont–university professor, engineer, former product-safety manager, and author. Welcome to my YouTube channel ( @designforproductsafety ).

This is an introductory video on “Design For Product Safety” (DFPS). Much of this channel will be from my book/textbook.

I will be posting short (2 minute) videos on product safety with the hope of stimulating fresh and lively discussion among those involved with designing and delivering safe products to users around the world. I promise that I won’t use any math.

Join me on this journey into this fascinating area and give me suggestions for future videos. You can reach me at designforproductsafety@gmail.com.

New YouTube Channel: “Design For Product Safety with Ken d’Entremont”

I have started a new product-safety related channel on YouTube based on my years of experiences as Product-Safety Manager at a large design-and-manufacturing company, years in mechanical-design consulting, and last seven years as professor of product-safety engineering–and ethics–to university students.

It will have regular short videos on “real-world” product-safety engineering and management with a focus on consumer products developed in fast-paced and innovative companies.

I hope that you will watch at this link.

You can also reach me at designforproductsafety@gmail.com.

“How to Make Ethical Decisions in Engineering”– a Q&A Session

From ASME.org:

You may think the field of engineering doesn’t lend itself to philosophical questioning. The truth is, engineers and philosophers alike need to ponder the ethical implications of new technologies like artificial intelligence and 3D printing.

A variety of challenges face the design engineer at a corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes innovative consumer products worldwide. Many safety-critical decisions arise in the normal course of engineering design that may have to be answered through the application of ethics.

For an up-to-date look at the relationships between engineering ethics, product design, and product-safety engineering, ASME.org interviewed P.E. Kenneth L. d’Entremont, associate professor and lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and author of the new book Engineering Ethics and Design for Product Safety (McGraw Hill, 2021).