Set-Back for Honda due to Recalls

The CEO of Honda Motors, Takanobu Ito states that due to the several recalls identified in recent Honda cars will cause a set-back to reach the company’s goal of selling 6 million vehicles a year worldwide by March 2017.

Honda has recalled the redesigned Fit subcompact vehicle 5 times in Japan for various issues since it went into the market in September 2013.
The CEO had to take a 20% pay cut for 3 months because of this.

Honda Recall

Due to the repeated recalls, Honda was forced to push back some of the product launches.Honda has recalled nearly 10 million vehicles globally since 2008.  The recalls have prompted Honda to set back vehicle launches including the Honda Legend which is already sold in the U.S. as the Acura RLX. Safety recalls include air bags on Honda cars to have caused deaths and injuries. The CEO said that it’s “painful” to think that the airbags have caused deaths and injuries.

This relates back to  our management class we can connect this to how their is an obvious issue in their supply- chain management process. It seems that if they keeping having these recalls, and the CEO is taking a pay cut makes it evident to us how there is something wrong in their process of building these vehicles. Honda needs to reevaluate their supply-chain process to catch what they are doing wrong in production of these vehicles that is causing this large amount of recalls on vehicles. As an owner of a Honda, I believe Honda should make this issue a priority to fix as soon as possible to save their reputation along with customers. Especially if they have recalled nearly 10 million vehicles globally since 2008, this is something big because it involves safety.

It can be assumed that Honda is not really making their vehicles as safe because the massive amount of recalls and this is one of the main reasons they are set-back on reaching their company goals.  Some questions to think of about Honda :

Do you think Honda should reevaluate their production process?

Can the management do things differently in their current supply-chain process to prevent recalls?

Article:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/honda-chief-says-could-miss-key-target-1415612162

 

7 thoughts on “Set-Back for Honda due to Recalls

  1. Interesting post! I definitely think that Honda needs to reevaluate their production process. I agree with you that these recalls do show that some thing is wrong in the supply chain. Honda really needs to investigate this and narrow down where the problem is coming from. Is there a specific point in the supply chain that is deficient? I do think management can change things to prevent recalls. For instance, I believe having more inspections of the products could help, also reevaluating their suppliers and looking at the standards they practice.

  2. This is an interesting post because in the past decade there have been millions of cars and trucks recalled by various companies within the automobile industry. I think that Honda having to recall vehicles is especially bad for their reputation because they are regarded as a manufacturer of reliable cars. Honda should definitely investigate their production process and possibly look into new parts manufacturers if these kind of defects are becoming a commonality. I think in order for automobile companies to continue their success, just as we talked about in class, there needs to be more quality control within their supply chain. These companies should scrutinize not only their parts manufacturers but their assembly lines as well because it could save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees from lawsuits stemming from injuries and fatalities.

  3. Very interesting and eye catching post, I really think that Honda needs to re-evaluate their production process especially when this is related to the safety of the passengers. They should look deep into this issue to prevent it from happening with their new productions or they will lose a lot of customers. As the word spreads out that they are having a lot of recalls customers will stop purchasing from them and advise others to do the same. The management should look in to this by hiring a professional to find out what is the core of the problem and work on eliminating it. They should also conduct a review on who they are currently purchasing their part from (if they are not having them made in house) and evaluate if they need to change their suppliers.

  4. I felt shocked when I read that about Honda. Where it is one of the biggest car companies in the world and that will effect the company reputation where the competition is very strong and tough there is always other companies to take Honda market share. I think Honda should reevaluate their production process to catch the problem and fix this issue. The reevaluate should monitor all possible kind of problems and they should have total quality management to see where the actual problem is occurring a possible reason could be of human cause like the long working hours or low wages etc…

  5. The first thing that popped into my head after reading this post is what on Earth is your quality control department doing?
    Honda should seriously re-evaluate their production process. They should also include quality measures like 6 Sigma and Poka-Yoke if they haven’t already done so. Honda should find answers to questions such as: Is their quality control department not in the loop? Are they not involved in decision making?

    It’s no wonder Honda is not reaching its target goal; something somewhere along their process is seriously lacking the quality measures you would expect from such a respected name in the auto industry.

  6. Yes, Honda should re-evaluate its production process. From the excerpt, there are several identified faults. One, the car is not safe for customers to use. There are death reports, resulting from the improper installation of airbags in the vehicle. Secondly, there are numerous recalls during the past few years due to inadequate production. Therefore, the organization should re-assess its production process in order to identify any issues or problems inhibiting the production of quality vehicles. In addition, the re-evaluation process will assist in rectifying the problem and prevent deaths. In sum, a re-evaluation will save the organization’s reputation from deteriorating due to the manufacture of faulty and low-quality products.
    The management can choose to hire assessors or investigators, who will analyze the main problem(s). The investigation process will enable the company to identify where the problem lies, enabling it to rectify its ongoing production process. That will reduce and prevent any more recalls.

  7. Honda is one of the top companies as it has more than just cars, in fact they have one of the best motorcycle companies and they are in fact MotoGp champions thanks to the Fireblade 1000cc race bike.
    Honda and Takata Air bags company have been in the industry for many years and they had an issue because an Airbag was the cause of death to an individual in the United States; insides the airbag there’s a steal beam type device that holds the airbag in place as the accident happens,,, but it didn’t; it went through this neck and made the man bleed to death.

    For more info check out
    http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/19/honda-recall-100k-vehicles-takata-airbags/

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