Product recall

The late news last nigh covered the inquires in USA re Toyota motor vehicle recalls that are going on. I was following a Toyota the other day and remembered the old advertising feature they used to use “The car in front is a Toyota” Nowadays it might read the car in front is a Toyota with dodgy brakes, iffy steering and a sticky accelerator pedal. I worked for a company who supplied Toyota for a couple of years and at that time their quality systems were the best in the business with the emphasis for quality placed firmly with the supplier. What is currently happening is a surprise to me as it must have been to Toyota senior management.
My wife owns a small Peugeot which was made at the same factory as the Ago and surprise surprise she had a product recall this morning for the same accelerator problems Toyota have been having. The difference is that the recall of Peugeot and it will apply to Citron too have not had any bad publicity. I was not surprised to get this recall knowing as I do how common components are used across the industry. I don’t think I would want to be in the shoes of the product supplier though. Having been involved with a potential product recall across USA about twenty years ago it is a scary experience. Fortunately for us our product was over engineered by us and no failures occurred. The manufacturing fault was corrected and although we had to meet the cost of a complete inspection of all products in the supply chain it never bankrupted us. My trips to the states during the crisis though were not pleasant.