Recalls: an industry time-bomb
waiting to blow? Scarred by its recalls scandal, GM warns globalisation could
trigger an epidemic of remedial work!
Cars are undergoing a step-change in complexity with new
tech such as alternative powertrains and self-driving car systems, and
consumers are in the front line. Car companies are exposed too, as they
globalise their product development, and spin myriad models off common components.
VW assembles about 4 million cars annually on its MQB (Golf) platform.
Car companies are
exposed too, as they globalise their product development, and spin myriad
models off common components.
‘It’s about systems integration, and we need design release
engineers who can get it right - that’s a rapidly growing part of our
capability,’ says GM’s Ammann. ‘The recall and the regulatory environment is
going to have to catch up pretty quickly with how [a complex] vehicle is
engineered.’ How did the 2010 recall disaster change Toyota as a company?
Unlike GM, the Japanese giant had a problem with contemporary, not historic,
cars, having to briefly pull some off sale as it investigated unintended
acceleration, then a brake problem with the Prius.
Toyota has appointed a chief quality officer for each region
- in Europe it’s the region’s chief exec, Didier Leroy - symbolising the need
to re-establish its reputation for bulletproof cars, and act fast and act
locally. Insiders admit Toyota’s 2010 quality focus wasn’t as razor-sharp as it
could have been, but vow that’s changed. ‘Now anything unusual that happens at
the dealer, we log it on the global system. If there are a handful of
instances, we go look at it,’ said a source. ‘If it’s in the UK on Auris or
Avensis, we send someone from the plant, who can make a quicker and better
decision.’ GM is now operating in a similar way, says Ammann.
Toyota has
appointed a chief quality officer for each region - in Europe it’s the region’s
chief exec, Didier Leroy - symbolising the need to re-establish its reputation
for bulletproof cars, and act fast and act locally.
Toyota says another significant change is that the UK agency
responsible for issuing recalls the (rebranded) DVSA - is now geared up to act
with real urgency too. UK car recalls get a 90% response rate, compared with
37% for other product recalls, claims the Society of Motor Manufacturers and
Traders.
So, as manufacturers become more sensitive to recalls, is
there an epidemic? Not yet. While Toyota’s annus horribilis was the second
biggest for UK recalls and the third biggest for US recalls in the past 20
years, numbers have dropped back on both sides of the pond since 2010.
GM and Toyota’s recalls look exceptional, one caused by
Detroit incompetence, the other exacerbated by political and media hype:
ultimately, a NASA investigation exonerated Toyota of unintended acceleration.
Logic says car makers could get trigger-happy with safety recalls as complexity
and scale intensify, to minimise the potential cost, liability and brand damage.
But while every recall inconveniences owners, there is an
upside: it’s another check on the most complicated consumer good money can buy.
Ignition
switch ‘was so far below GM’s own spec it failed to keep the engine on...
Personnel’s inability to address the problem for 11 years was a history of
failures,’ states GM-commissioned report into the case
