Ford and Firestones Tire Recall:

The Costliest Information Gap in History

Chapter 7 Case Study
Brian Kaufman
James Grant
Nen !ion
"te#e $ituc%e
Tom &attulo

Problems and Major Issues

Federal in#estiation of '( deaths and more than

)** incidents

+arch ,---: Confidential memo from Firestone to

Ford: e#erythins fine

.uust ,---: Ford recall in ,( countries /ut not in

0" and NHT". not notified

.uust 1***:
2
&isareement a/out tire inflation pressure 3Ford 1( psi4
Firestone )* psi5
2
report that Firestone plant 6as 7rife 6ith 8uality9control:

Problems and Major Issues

"eptem/er 1***:
2
Firestone memo from );--: 7ma<or reser#ations:
a/out a plan to replace tires o#erseas
2
Ford said it 6as under no o/liation to report
o#erseas recalls
2
Ford did not ha#e 6arranty data on tire recalls
2
Firestones damae claims mo#ed to Nash#ille4
6arrenty ad<ustments in =hio

Problems and Major Issues

"eptem/er 1*** 3continued5:

2
Trend identified after9the9fact /y the New York Times
2
&epartment of Transportation doesnt ha#e fundin to trac%
all data
2
NHT".: 7our testin is clearly outdated:

>resident of Bridestone said the lac% of 8uality

control 6as manaements fault

Group of personal industry la6yers identified a trend

in ,--(? /ut did not report to NHT". until 1***@

MIS Application

$hy 6as this a crisis in information manaementA

2
The information 6as a#aila/le? /ut it 6as not easy to et at
and it 6as not shared@

$hat role did data/ases and data mt playA

2
There 6ere se#eral isolated data/ases
2
There 6ere no easy 6ays to detect trends
2
There 6ere no 6ays to share data 3Ford had to 7pry:
information from Firestone5
2
Not all data collected

What took so long?

Indi#iduals hid information 3la6yers and

eBecuti#es5

&ata not stored 3lac% of fundin5

No o/liation to report o#erseas actions

&idnt ha#e a tool to detect trends easily

The Players and the ata

Firestone
2
Nash#ille: &amae claims
2
=hio: $arranty ad<ustments

Ford
2
$arranty info@ for non9tire issues
2
&id not ha#e 6arranty information for tires

&epartment of Transportation
2
Fatality data 6ith #ehicle type
2
Not storin actual causes of failure 3i@e@ from tires5
2
No data from non9fatal accidents

NHT".
2
Complaints? crashes? and in<uries;deaths

Ca6yers
2
>attern of failures recorded

S!"!CT # $%&M ?

$hat 8uestions from &Bs 6ere needed:

2
Better trend analysis
2
Ho6 many 6arranty issues from each tire type
2
Relate issues to manufacturin source
2
Need to /e >R=.CTIDE not reacti#eF

Will you be my 'riend?

Relationship of oraniGations prohi/ited a

rapid solution
2
Ford and Firestone had a lon relationship 3,**
years5? /ut did not communicate on issues
2
Ford and Firestone did not report data to the
o#ernment if it miht cost them
2
Ceal community hid information from
o#ernment for ' years to protect their la6suit

Conclusions

There 6as not an en#ironment of information

sharin

Not all parties 6ere collectin the correct

data

No one 6as proacti#e a/out loo%in into

pro/lems