| Headline: | | | | shoes. As the legend was told, the dealer immediately |
| Honda Recalls 646,000 Vehicles Worldwide Over | | | | replaced the shoes and within a week Toyota had |
| Faulty Switch | | | | flown an engineer from Japan to New York to study |
| News Source: by EIN, 2010/02/02 | | | | the problem. Within a month, a fix was designed and all |
| Legal news for product liability attorneys. Honda recalls | | | | Lexus were voluntarily retrofitted with an improved |
| the Fit after discovering a switch poses a fire hazard. | | | | gas pedal. |
| Product liability attorneys alert- Honda recalled the Fit | | | | While the exact details of the case study may have |
| over the power window switch, which poses a fire | | | | been embellished in the retelling, this example of |
| hazard to consumers. | | | | customer service and proactive defect avoidance has |
| Headline: | | | | been used as a benchmark for teaching continual |
| Toyota's other pedal problem: Lawsuits | | | | process improvement and customer satisfaction. Fast |
| NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is | | | | forward to the above story of millions of Toyota |
| facing a growing number lawsuits from consumers | | | | vehicles being recalled (and production halted) to fix a |
| who complain their vehicles suddenly accelerate or | | | | gas pedal problem. Is this the definition of irony? What |
| may do so, and want the world's largest automaker to | | | | has happened to Toyota over the last twenty years? |
| pay for it. Last week, Toyota stopped selling eight | | | | Since I have not been commissioned to perform an |
| models in the United States and Canada, including its | | | | exhaustive quality audit of Toyota, I can only present a |
| popular Camry and Corolla, because of possible | | | | scientific hypothesis based on 40+ years as a quality |
| unintended acceleration. Some 8 million vehicles are up | | | | control engineer, 20 years as a management |
| for repair worldwide over problems including alleged | | | | consultant and ten years as an expert witness in |
| faulty accelerator pedals made by the supplier CTS | | | | products liability and organizational negligence litigation. It |
| Corp, and the possibility that floor mats could jam the | | | | is a phenomena we have termed Enterprise |
| accelerator pedal. | | | | Entropy©. |
| Headline: | | | | (En•tro•py - noun: The inevitable and steady |
| CPSC Recalls 15,000 Horse Figurines Over Lead Paint | | | | deterioration of a system) |
| January 30, 2010 - Injury News) | | | | Enterprise Entropy typically manifests itself as follows: |
| New Source: Minneapolis, MN—The U.S. Consumer | | | | A company is launched to fill some perceived gap in a |
| Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Blip Toys | | | | market. The principals are determined to make the |
| have voluntarily recalled Nature Wonders HD pinto | | | | product or service “better and of higher value” |
| horse toy figures, after it was revealed that the toys | | | | (or some such superlatives) than those currently in the |
| violate the federal lead paint standard. The recall was | | | | market. They execute per their vision and values and |
| announced by the CPSC on Tuesday, January 26, | | | | rise to prominence in their industry. Their name |
| 2010. | | | | becomes synonymous with quality and value. Then the |
| Headline: | | | | business “changes hands,” either by sale of the |
| Tree Stands and Brackets Recalled Due to Fall | | | | company or generational transition from the older to |
| Hazard | | | | the younger, the “Boomers to the Gen X to the |
| New Source: CPSC announces recall of tree stands | | | | Gen Y.” The new leadership rides the crest of their |
| and brackets due to fall risk. Product liability lawyer | | | | public reputation while on a mission to drive down |
| alerts- Tree stands recalled due to fall risk, CPSC | | | | costs, increase profits and penetrate new markets. |
| reports. Decatur, ALSummit Treestands LLC has | | | | Many companies that rose to stardom during the |
| participated in the voluntary recall of Talon Hunting | | | | second half of the twentieth century have become |
| Hang-on Tree Stands and Brackets due to the fall | | | | mostly entropic skeletons of their former majesty. |
| hazard they pose to consumers. The U.S. Consumer | | | | Production of their products and services are now |
| Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the | | | | outsourced, off-shored, throw-away hermaphrodites |
| recall on Thursday, January 28, 2010. The CPSC | | | | of what was designed and produced by the founders. |
| reported, The tree stand can unexpectedly detach | | | | The vision and values of the founders have been |
| from the tree when the brackets fail, posing a fall | | | | methodically diluted as time and business pressures |
| hazard to consumers. Approximately 6,800 tree | | | | and loss of focus caused systematic decay. |
| stands, brackets and straps are involved in the recall. | | | | Oftentimes, customer service issues begin to surface |
| What is more disturbing than the content of these four | | | | signaling an increase in the probability of impending |
| news stories is that they were from the FIRST TWO | | | | product failures. This priceless message from |
| DAYS of February, 2010. The numbers are staggering. | | | | consumers is, tragically, too-often dismissed as |
| The cost is mind-boggling. The impact is global. The | | | | customer stupidity or buyer’s remorse. |
| long-term consequences cannot be measured | | | | We are utilizing the lessons learned from our |
| because the manufacturers will only have the | | | | expert-witness assignments as the basis for making |
| opportunity to fix a small number of the products. Lack | | | | executives aware of the potential liability issues within |
| of notification and consumer apathy will ensure that | | | | their organizations. Just as we have used our |
| many of these faulty products will be in the hands of | | | | assessment and diagnosis tools to help improve |
| consumers for decades. The release of these | | | | processes, we are applying ourselves to uncover the |
| products to the public by the manufacturers is not only | | | | warning signs of pending catastrophes that may have |
| keeping the Consumer Products Safety Commission | | | | become embedded in product and service enterprises. |
| busy, it continues to overload the civil court dockets | | | | As best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell points out in his |
| with products liability lawsuits. This epidemic borders on | | | | books Tipping Point and Outliers, we are often |
| criminal behavior because the vast majority of these | | | | unaware of when symptoms turn into epidemics until it |
| defects were avoidable! | | | | is too late. Gladwell’s research goes on to make |
| When Lexus was introduced by Toyota as their | | | | the case that well-meaning leaders are prone to |
| high-end line of ultra-reliable vehicles, we in the quality | | | | misdiagnosing the problems and then trying to fix the |
| assurance field studied their processes and training to | | | | wrong root causes. He also points out that those |
| learn proactive techniques for process excellence. The | | | | attempting to communicate the message of impending |
| Toyota quality model had been a benchmark of | | | | disaster are often ignored. |
| success in minimizing defects, so we were eager to | | | | The disease of Enterprise Entropy has also |
| learn of the ongoing advances. During that period, there | | | | permeated the quality assurance disciplines set the |
| was a popular case study that made all of the quality | | | | stage for inherently unsafe products to reach a critical |
| assurance journals as an example of proactive quality | | | | mass and explode into an epidemic of a country |
| management. | | | | producing the equivalent of “Japanese Junk” as |
| A customer complained that the gas pedal on her | | | | seen in the 1950’s. Currently however, rather than |
| Lexus caused her shoe to become jammed between | | | | defective products simply being thrown away, we |
| the pedal and the floor mat, resulting in the heal | | | | have cadres of attorneys ready to sue your company |
| breaking from a very expensive pair of Ferragamo | | | | into non-existence. |