[jcommin]

There is plenty of blame to go around.

An engineer and team was assigned to design the ignition system. Since this was going on selected models, there must have been some requirements for the design: price point, volume, type, features, etc. I'm sure prototypes were made and testing was done by another team. Once the development, testing, marketing, sales and whoever else was on this part - all had to sign off on it. Purchasing gets involved and sends out RFQs (request for quote) to vendors - I'm sure there were many vendors competing for the business. All need to be Tier suppliers approved by GM. Who ever got selected (I'm sure this was not made internally) signed a 5 yr contact, with a % price reduction of each year of the contract.

Now the Tier supplier maybe outsourcing some of the subcomponents to other vendors. The Tier vendor is responsible for quality, delivery and handles all complaints.


If there is a quality complaint, the burden is on the supplier. If the supplier can prove they have supplied product per the requirements, they aren't at fault. But this was different - this is a consumer issue. I'm sure a team was formed to investigate the complaints. Everything gets reviewed from the very beginning. Whatever decision was made as to what to do/how to handle this issue, it is out of the original engineer and his teams hands. This issue went up several high levels with the one thing in mind as to never let it get to the very top. This had to get very gamy when the complaints kept coming in. It got to the point, where the damage control failed - the only other option is to come clean.

There is always someone to "fall on the sword". That is just how it works. I have seen it time and time again.