Product Liability Suit - The Case of Toyota Essay

Product Liability Suit - The Case of Toyota - Essay Example However, there are several reports of untoward incidents that are caused by safety-related defects of products. The failure of most companies to be responsible for their products resulted to product liability lawsuits. As a consequence, severe damage on the profit and sales can be experienced with a tainted reputation from the consumer perception. The case of Toyota Motor is an example of how product liability can make or break the success of a multinational company. This paper will examine the product liability suits of Toyota and their actions taken to face and mitigate the adverse effects of the staggering market complaints. Keywords: product liability, defects, Toyota, reengineering, Lean strategy Introduction With the continuous evolution of customer needs and satisfaction, quality and safety of products are becoming more diverse and demanding. The emphasis on quality products always goes hand-in-hand with customer safety and health. These are some of the deciding factors that m aintain customer loyalty, establish reputation and considerably reduce liability for the company. Our society is becoming more litigious and very particular with performance, reliability, durability, and other value added benefits. However, there are sheer number of cases where products resulted to untoward incidents like injury and death which drive most companies to bring product liability to the spotlight. It is imperative to all companies that the heaviest responsibility for their products in the market rest on their shoulders. Failing to meet this responsibility will obviously result to legal actions and even threaten the company’s existence in the long run. The liability of manufacturers of products for harms caused to consumers has great prominence mostly in United States. It has already resulted to thousands of liability cases filed annually including some class actions of millions of individuals as plaintiffs (Polinsky and Shavell, 2009). The case of Toyota Motors ha s shown the world how a successful multinational company can be devastated with product liability suit within several years. Toyota is facing the biggest recalls in its history after uncovering widespread problems with its vehicles. Before we directly examine the events that caused Toyota Motors to recall millions of cars in different countries, let us first take a look on the beginnings and success of the company until the major outbreak of customer dissatisfaction and lawsuits regarding the failure of their products. The History of Development and Innovations The beginnings of Toyota Motors Company can be traced back from its founder Kiichiro Toyoda in Aichi, Japan. Established in 1937, the Toyota was previously branded as Toyoda which literally means â€Å"fertile rice paddies† in Japanese. The new name represented a convenient break from associating the company with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the "Toyota Motor Company (Toyota Motors Company, 1988) The Toyota Global (2012) website indicated that April 1936, Toyoda’s first passenger car was the Toyoda Standard Sedan AA. From September 1947, Toyota’s cars were sold under the name â€Å"Toyopet†. In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged into one company, the Toyota Motor