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Cars suffer from auto commonization
A third-generation Toyota Prius hybrid drives down a street in Tokyo.
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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Toyota says it's recalling more than 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars worldwide to fix brake problems. That's after nearly 200 complaints in Japan and the United States about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed under certain conditions. Now Toyota of course has recalled a lot of other cars as well -- for sudden acceleration. And if you're wondering why so many are involved, look no further than this term: a lot of it has to do with commonization. That's when a company uses a single part across several different model lines. Yeah, it saves money when it goes right, but it can cause a lot of problems when it doesn't. Marketplace's Alisa Roth explains.
Alisa Roth: Commonizing parts can save a lot of money, so manufacturers have been doing more and more of it. And Toyota has always been the master.
John Henke is an auto industry consultant at Planning Perspectives. He says commonization can make the end product cheaper.
John Henke: Because the auto companies are putting the same part on more vehicles, and so they can get better prices from their suppliers.
They save on R and D costs, and there's no extra cost for setting up production. But when something goes wrong with a part -- like Toyota's accelerators -- it can end up a problem for lots of different vehicles.
Henke says it would be too expensive to go back to using multiple different parts and suppliers. But that there are ways car makers can mitigate the potential damage.
Henke: One thing they have to continue to do is be very vigilant on the quality of the products that are coming into the plant.
And he says, car makers need to make sure they're collecting-and analyzing-data from dealers around the world, so they can identify small problems before they get too big.
I'm Alisa Roth for Marketplace.
I am a mechanical engineer. I am also a former U. S. patent attorney. I had a comment - a very good comment, I believe. But, I'm not going to give it because, the last time I tried to leave a comment, more than half of it was deleted.
I know electrons are very expensive, but what is the problem Marketplace? I have lost a lot of respect for public radio.
Using common components and assemblies across all lines of vehicles should also reduce the number of problems because it makes total quality control easier and less expensive. When defects such as these occur it implies that quality control from design to assembly has declined dramatically. In Toyota’s case superior quality has been its sine qua non of success. How could they get lax on that? If they are rational producers they know that the cost of fixing problems arising from lax TQC are ten time greater at each subsequent stage in the process, and even more if it damages your distinctive competitive advantage.
The use of common defective components also implies that there are orders of magnitude more defective components than complaints. So either consumers are not paying attention, or they do not want to bother complaining or they are loathe complaining for some reason. In any case, it means that a key feedback mechanism necessary to a healthy functioning free market is woefully defective.
And he says, car makers need to make sure they're collecting-and analyzing-data from dealers around the world, so they can identify small problems before they get too big.
Why all the hyphens? Guess it's the difference between print and broadcast media -- I'm a former copy editor.
