Takata Product Recall

WORLDS L ARGEST AIRBAG RECALL

About the Company

Takata Corporation is an automotive parts Company based in
Japan.
Started in 1933 by Takezo Takada.
Started off by producing Lifelines for Parachutes.
In 1950s started researching on seat belts.
Created the first Crash Test Plant for testing under real world
conditions.
Began producing Airbags since 1988.
Holds 20% market share in Airbag Industry as of 2014.

The Issue
Takatas Mexican subsidiary had mishandled the manufacture
of explosive propellants and improperly stored chemicals used
in airbags.
The inflators and propellant devices created by Takata deployed
improperly in the event of a crash.
This caused explosion in the inflator which caused shooting
metal fragments/sharpnels into vehicle occupants.

Measures taken by Takata

In April 2013, Takata announced the fault and admitted their
Mexican subsidiary had mishandled the manufacture which has
affected the airbags supplied to the U.S. Automobile Market.
This led to a recall of 3.6 million vehicles in 2013.
On June 23,2014 auto manufacturers BMW, Chrysler, Ford,
Honda, Mazda, Nissan, andToyotaannounced they were
recalling over three million vehicles worldwide due to Takata
Corporation-made airbags.

Facts
Before 2013, the defective airbags had already caused a total of
100 injuries and 8 deaths, that were reported.
The recall was in response to aNational Highway Traffic Safety
Administration(NHTSA) investigation that was initiated after the
NHTSA received three injury complaints.
Takata initially claimed it had little clue as to which cars used its
defective inflators, or even what the root cause was.
Some documents show that in 2002, Takatas plant in Mexico
allowed a defect rate that was six to eight times above
acceptable limits, or roughly 60 to 80 defective parts for every
1 million airbag inflators shipped.

Case 1
The New York Timeshas published a report suggesting that
Takata with Honda knew about the airbag issues in 2004,
conducting secret tests off work hours to verify the problem.
The results confirmed major issues with the inflators, and
engineers quickly began researching a solution. But instead of
notifying federal safety regulators and moving forward with
fixes, Takata executives ordered its engineers to destroy the
data and dispose of the physical evidence.

Case 2
In July 2014, a pregnant Malaysian woman was killed in a
collision involving her 2003Honda Citywhich contained the
defective airbag. The woman, aged 42, died when a metal
fragment from a ruptured drivers airbag sliced into her neck in
the accident in which she was driving at around 30km/h when
another vehicle hit her at a junction, according to a lawsuit filed
by her father at a Miami federal court. Her daughter, delivered
after the mother's death, died three days later.

Current Scenario
In their statement the company said, "We take this situation seriously,
will strengthen our quality control and make a concerted effort to
prevent a recurrence".
Takata has already recalled 40 million vehicles across 12 vehicle brands.
Another 13 million cars are expected to be recalled this year.
Takata was fined $200 Million ($70 million paid upfront) by U.S. federal
regulators in response to Takata admittance of a default.

Thank You..!