Thursday, October 19, 2006

Cost of Poor Quality - COPQ

With "The Great Sony battery recall" in news, i feel it would be appropriate to look at how much such mistakes cost and how they affect the companies involved. Let's have a look at the definition and then the news clips.

Definition
Cost of Poor Quality - COPQ consists of those costs which are generated as a result of producing defective material.This cost includes the cost involved in fulfilling the gap between the desired and actual product/service quality. It also includes the cost of lost opportunity due to the loss of resources used in rectifying the defect. This cost includes all the labor cost, rework cost, disposition costs, and material costs that have been added to the unit up to the point of rejection. COPQ does not include detection and prevention cost.

Battery recall estimated to cost Sony at least $430 million
October 19, 2006 14:17

Tokyo (Japan) - Trying to put an end to the guessing game as to how many more laptops will be added to the battery recall tally, Sony today revealed more details about the total impact from the massive, multi-million dollar recall. The electronics giant believes that the final count of affected laptops will reach 9.6 million, which is a a significant increase from the last official number of around 8 million.


Sony also updated its prediction on how much this headache is going to cost: In a 67% jump from the official estimate in August, the expected cost for recall restitutions is now set at around $430 million. Last month, Sony gave a low-end estimate of $267 million.
The list of impacted notebook manufacturers, which has been growing since the recall was first implemented months ago, now includes Dell, Apple, IBM, Lenovo, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Sony.



Toyota looks into Prius safety, recalls 750,000 trucks
Posted 5/18/2005

Suspension problems lead to one of automaker's biggest-ever safety recalls. Plus, complaints of highway stalling emerge about popular hybrid.By MSN Money staff and wire reportsToyota, in one of its largest safety recalls ever, said Tuesday it is recalling more than 750,000 pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles because of problems with the front suspension that could hinder steering. The recall comes a day after the company announced it would look into complaints that its wildly popular Prius hybrid car can suddenly stall at highway speeds.Toyota (TM, news, msgs) said the truck and SUV recall covers 774,856 vehicles in the United States, including the 2001-2004 model years of the Tacoma, the 2001-2002 versions of the 4Runner and the 2002-2004 model years of the Tundra and Sequoia.

Fires prompt huge Ford recall
Thursday, September 8, 2005
One of industry's largest recalls, 3.8 million trucks, comes as ailing automaker faces mounting lawsuits.
The Detroit News


With reports of engine fires mounting, Ford Motor Co. is warning owners of 3.8 million pickups and SUVs to have their cruise-control switches disconnected as part of one of the biggest recalls in automotive history.
The automaker said Wednesday that it is recalling a wide range of 1994-2002 model-year vehicles -- including its top selling F-150 pickup -- to fix cruise-control switches allegedly linked to more than 1,100 engine fires.
The defective cruise-control switch has grown into one of the most costly and widespread automotive safety problems since the Firestone tire recall and comes as Ford struggles to turn around its U.S. operations.
Fires linked to the switches have destroyed homes in Texas, Florida, California and elsewhere. In addition, wrongful-death lawsuits have been filed against Ford and two of its suppliers alleging that defective switches caused fires that killed a 74-year-old Iowa woman and a 4-year-old girl in Georgia. It's the fifth largest auto recall on record and follows a similar recall in January of 800,000 pickups and SUVs built in the 2000 model year.


Baby Formula Recall
Sep 16th 2006

WASHINGTON - There's a big recall of baby formula.
The Abbott health-care company says hundreds of thousands of bottles of infant formula distributed nationwide might not have enough vitamin C.


The recall is for approximately 100,000, 32-ounce plastic bottles of Similac Alimentum Advance liquid formula and approximately 200,000 bottles of Similac Advance with Iron.

Abbott spokeswoman Tracey Noe says the bottles are missing a special layer that keeps air out. When the oxygen enters the bottle, it causes the level of vitamin C to decrease over time.

If infants drink formula without enough vitamin C for two to four weeks, they could start exhibiting symptoms of vitamin C deficiency. Those include irritability with pain. Abbott says, so far, it hasn't had any medical complaints.


...History is replete with such incidents which hurt big companies their name and money.

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