Ford Pinto Case Study And Discussion

1167 Words5 Pages
Ford Pinto Case Study and Discussion MGT/216 April 11th, 2011 Ford Pinto Case and Discussion Ford’s mission is to streamline the supply chain by streamlining through a supplier. Ford is doing this to make things more efficient and to address sustainability issues. The values at the time of the Ford Pinto case do not seem to parallel with that of concern over consumer safety. “The company defended itself on the grounds that it used the accepted risk/benefit analysis to determine if the monetary costs of making the change were greater than the societal benefit” (Leggett, 1999, The Ford Pinto Case: The Valuation of Life as it Applies to the Negligence-Efficiency Argument, Risk/Benefit Analysis, para. 1). Ford’s legal argument was that the economic theory cost/benefits analysis made their decisions legal, “Based on this analysis, Ford legally chose not to make the design changes which would have made the Pinto safer (Leggett, 1999, The Ford Pinto Case: The Valuation of Life as it Applies to the Negligence-Efficiency Argument, Risk/Benefit Analysis, para. 3). The main people that were instrumental in this debacle were the heads of Ford Motor Company, the president Semon “Bunky” Knudsen, CEO Henry Ford II, and Lee Iacocca. Knudsen did not agree with Iacocca and Ford regarding competing so fiercely with the small foreign car market and was eventually forced to resign. Ford promoted Iacocca to president who immediately ordered the manufacture of the Pinto with a two year deadline (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). When the Pinto debuted in 1971 Ford was aware of the faulty fuel tank design, but according to the proposed guidelines set by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 301, the Pinto met the required standards. It was not until 1977 that the Standard 301 was approved and all Pintos were provided with rupture-proof gas tanks. Iacocca set

More about Ford Pinto Case Study And Discussion

Open Document