Significant improvement needed in Takata quality control - outside panel
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A panel of former U.S. transportation officials commissioned by Takata Corp to review its safety and quality efforts said on Tuesday the Japanese air bag manufacturer must make significant improvements to address quality problems in the wake of a record-setting recalls.
At least 10 deaths and more than 100 injuries have led to the recall of about 24 million U.S. vehicles and 28 million inflators by 14 automakers for airbag inflators that may rupture and spew deadly metal fragments.
The panel's report, released on Tuesday, was commissioned by Takata in response to harsh scrutiny from Congress and U.S. regulators, who questioned what Takata had done to assess its quality and safety efforts.
The panel, appointed in January 2015, found the company must do more to address quality in its design and manufacturing processes and promote quality through improved management practices.
Takata did not have clearly defined quality efforts, the panel led by former Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner found. It added that there is "no stand-alone Takata programme aimed at identifying quality-related problems with Takata products once they are in the vehicle fleet."
Takata said last month another 5.1 million U.S. vehicles have defective inflators after the December death of a driver in South Carolina in a 2006 Ford pickup with a ruptured inflator.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said tens of millions of additional Takata inflators will eventually need to be replaced, on top of the current recalls.
NHTSA said it is reviewing the Takata report.
Takata Chairman and CEO Shigehisa Takada said the report "provides an additional set of clear, actionable steps to ensure that we support a best-in-class quality programme. We have thoroughly reviewed the panel’s recommendations, and we
intend to act on them."
Takata has added more than 100 additional staff throughout its North American quality organization and named a new U.S. general counsel and chief safety official.
Takata has previously acknowledged it improperly stored chemicals and had problems with the manufacture of the explosive propellants used to inflate airbags. It has also acknowledged it kept poor quality control records.
In 2014, Reuters reported that Takata engineering reports, presentations and emails showed it struggled to meet its own standards for safety in manufacturing air bag inflators for a decade until 2011.
In November, NHTSA fined Takata $70 million and accused it of providing "selective, incomplete or inaccurate data." The company faces an ongoing criminal investigation by U.S. prosecutors.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Dan Grebler)
