Ford Firestone Case

Discussion Question 1:

Fishbone Diagram – Quality and Safety of the Explorer

Discussion Question 2:

Ford used Pareto analysis when trying to identify the problem. Pareto analysis is used to determine which defect should be tackled first according to the frequency of the defects. In Table 1&2, it is seen that the claim rate of tires produced in different production plants were different. Rate of damage claims per million tires built in Decatur was more than double the rate of Wilson and 10 times the rate of Oklahoma City. Thus, the bulk of the problem is with Decatur plant.

Besides the production site, Ford used pareto analysis to decide on the type of the tires to be recalled based on the frequency of claims. The Company recalled all ATX and ATX II tires of P235/75R15 and Wilderness AT tire of the same size produced only in Decatur based on rate of claims.

Discussion Question 3:

Although the tires that used as original equipment in Ford Explorer between 1991-2000 passed the tests made by Tire and Rim Association it’s obvious that these tires especially produced in Decatur plant had some design and manufacturing problems. It’s hard to define the problem as a design problem only because the same type of tires produced in different plants of Firestone perform differently, the rate of damage claims per million tires built in Decatur is more than double the rate for tires made in Wilson and 10 times the rate of tires made in Oklahoma City, this fact cites that there was a quality problem for Decatur factory besides the design problem.

Another factor the emphasis that there was a design problem is the one related with the heat. Most of the complains came from south states or the countries which have a climate with high average temperatures like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, when we combine this data with the report that explains the separation between two layers of steel in the tire is caused by excessive heat, it’s appropriate to say there is design...