An Exploratory Study on Motor Vehicles Recall in the US - Trend Analysis of Recalls Due to Commonality in Vehicles Design

Using product platforms and commonality in product design saves supply chain costs, reduces inventory. But commonality in design also leads to using same component or process across multiple products which can cause the larger scale of recalls in case there is a problem with the common component. The auto manufactures have been using commonality and different anecdotes show that these strategies have impacted auto recalls. This exploratory research studies the trend of recalls due to commonality strategies for 35 years since 1975 taken by 23 auto manufacturers selling cars and trucks in the US. The auto recalls data used in this study is provided by the US National Highway Traffic Safety. SAS PROC MIXED is used to model the trend of recalls due to commonality by the vehicle make. The trends are further explored to study and explain similarities and dissimilarities between different makes. The study shows that there are four distinct clusters of recall profiles among the auto manufacturers that resulted due to commonality and product platforms strategy. Specifically, it is found that the Japanese auto manufacturers have increasing rates of recalls whereas most of the Big 3 US auto manufacturers have distinctively decreasing rate of recalls arising from commonality and product platforms strategy. With the recent recall problems the auto manufacturers are facing, this research provides valuable insights about the trends and can create a wider stream of research that can explore the impact of commonality and the product platform strategies on vehicle recalls