Learning – Ethics Green Move, Essay Example

The best recommendation which could be made in is to remedy the defect which has been discovered on the solar panels of the Zero Pedal solar bicycle. The marketing of the defective product would make the organization vulnerable to liability claims which are defined by Section 2 of the 3^rd restatement of torts. The products liability claims are composed of three types of claims. The first type of claim is what can be attributed to a manufacturing defect. The second type of claim can be attributed to a design defect and the third would be attributed to a failure to warn (Perkins 2).

The failure to warn is acknowledged as being a marketing flaw.  The defect which has been discovered on the Zero Pedalbicycle can be categorized as all three defects (Perkins 2). These are the pertinent pressures that the Green Moveorganization is facing with regards to the acceleration defect which has been discovered on the Zero Pedal bicycle (Perkins 2).

The problem solving paradigm which would be applied in this case is the root cause evaluation. The root cause evaluation is a problem resolution matrix which is applied in order to remedy the challenge or non- conformance. This is performed with the goal of ascertaining the root cause of the defect and deters the challenge from occurring again. Root cause evaluations are frequently applied in manufacturing concerns with regards to finding the defects which may be present in products which are in the prototype stage and ready to be released to market (Vorley 2).

The problem must be addressed by using SMART concepts. The SMART concept is an acronym for specified, action directed realistic implementations in addition to time limited. Gemba Gambatsu is a concept which can also be applied. This concept is defined as location and data in Japanese. This implies requesting for a total of five times the reason for the defect. The requests are made five times in order to find the root cause of the problem (Vorley 6).

Pareto evaluation can also be applied. Pareto assessment implies that by doing twenty percent of the work, eight percent of the benefits can be realized. A fault tree analysis can also be conducted. The steps would be to provide a definition for the challenge, comprehend the defect (evaluate areas of improvement, collect the information, perform a data evaluation), produce an action design and apply the action design. The Japanese manufacturing concerns have been applying these types of implementations for over sixty years. These manufacturing perspective and the analysis models have enabled the Japanese to c fabricated products which have been considered to be of the most elevated quality in existence (Vorley 5).

It may not be ethical or legal to provide a promotional surcharge to the retailer who is requesting the kickback. In a similar situation, Woolworth’s facilitated information to the local enforcement authorities with regards to its supply chain members’ providing a payment which totaled as much as twenty percent of the value of the merchandise  in order to ensure that the products received placement on the shelves at the Woolworth retailing area (Thompson 1). Consequently, I would not recommend that Green Move Company pay $ 5,000 in order to have its merchandise placed on the shelves of the retailer’s establishment.

Defects which are presented in motor vehicles are precisely defects which are discovered in the vehicle itself. The defects which are presented in motor vehicles occur when a vehicle is sent to the market and possesses a defective component which can result in personal injury. The categories of defects which are present are design and manufacturing defects. The manufacturing flaws occur when the vehicle is in its normal operation. The vehicle is released from the manufacturing line with a flaw in its composition. A paradigm of this type of flaw would be that a thousand Zero Pedal bicycles are released and a few of them have defective solar panels.  The flaws which are found in design are of a more serious nature (Laws 1; Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1 Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1; Rodriguez 1).

The design flaw takes place in the event that the vehicle has an inherent flaw in its design. The flaws which are found in vehicle design have been an origin of lawsuits for years. Unintended acceleration is a commonly found design flaw. This design flaw has been the cause of the recall of millions of vehicles which had been manufactured by Toyota Motors Corp.  In order to prove that there is a design flaw in a manufactured product, a collection of three conditions must be present. Initially, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the vehicle was presented in the marketplace in a hazardous condition. The plaintiff must also demonstrate that the injury took place while operating the vehicle in a method which had been designed by the vehicle manufacturer. The third condition is that the plaintiff must demonstrate that the vehicle has not been modified in any form with regards to the vehicles’ performance (Laws 1; Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1 Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1; Rodriguez 1).

The best time to address the problem is in the latency stage. In the initial point of development, the remedy may cost a relative expense of one to ten dollars to remedy. Addressing and discovering the design challenge in the stages which are subsequent to the client’s possession of the product would incur a cost of ten thousand dollars. This additional expense which would be incurred when the merchandise is in the client’s possession includes the costs of the attrition of marketing segment share, the decline of  Green Move’s brand reputation , administrative expenses and warranty expenses (Vorley 6).

In addition to the damages which have been mentioned, the personal injury litigation which may be an outcome of the Zero Pedal bicycles unintended perilous acceleration may be an outcome of the damages caused to third parties.  In a similar case, plaintiffs who had been involved in the $1.1 billion lawsuit of the Toyota Motor Corp. debated over the forms of payment which would be appropriate for the damages caused by the unintended acceleration of their automotive products. A specific portion had been designated to go to driver training and safety education group (Laws 1; Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1 Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1; Rodriguez 1).

The lawsuit had been registered in 2010 subsequent to the vehicle operators all over the United States documenting that the Toyota vehicles in the United States beginning to experience spontaneous and unrequested acceleration. Toyota Motors Corp. representatives have asserted that the vehicles which had been produced did not possess electronic defects. Root cause analyses had been performed by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in reviewing the electronic origin codes for the Toyota Motors Corp. vehicles which had been subject to recall. The root cause analysis had been meticulously performed by various scores of engineering personnel who reviewed the Toyota vehicles and reviewed the segments of the software code which had been alleged to be the root cause of the unintentional acceleration of the Toyota Motors Corp. vehicles ( Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1).

Almost one year ago, Toyota Motors Corp. concurred to remit an assessed $1.1 billion in order to provide restitution of the accessed unintended acceleration defect which had been experienced by their product. The defect caused damage to the Toyota Motors brand reputation. Toyota emitted recalls of their products due to the attribute of unintended acceleration in the models which had been produced in 2009 and 2010. This occurred subsequent to reports that a few of the vehicles experienced the characteristic of unintended acceleration (Laws 1; Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1 Lexis Litigation Resource Community Staff 1; Rodriguez 1)

Over twenty three million Toyota Motors clients sustained economic loss. A class action settlement suit had been suggested last year. Toyota Motor Corp. had been forced to make payments of $875 million in non-monetary restitution and $757 million in cash. This had been attributed to a design defect in the vehicle braking systems. In addition, Toyota Motors Corp. had been required to produce over $227 million in litigation related expenses. The additional costs were that Toyota Motors Corp. had been compelled to implement a vehicle braking monitoring system in their automobiles (Rodriguez 1).

Prior to beginning to solve the challenge, the actual problem must be comprehended before taking action. In this case, the Zero Pedal bicycle experiences perilous acceleration when subjected to environmental temperatures above one hundred degrees Fahrenheit.  It must be discovered with regards to the causal attribute of the challenge. It is important to find the challenge and remedy it at the earliest stages of product development (Vorley 6).

Conventional economic sense asserts that firms are formed in order to maintain decreased production expenses and to increase total profits. On occasion, it becomes more profitable for the organization to look beyond its personnel in order to produce a product.  The implementation of subcontractors may be a viable answer. The subcontractors are perceived to perform the manufacturing endeavors more efficiently than the employees who are currently employed. Green Move Company may wish to review the possibility of establishing an external subcontractor in order to manufacture the Zero Pedal bicycles in Bangladesh (RISE 1). In this manner, the firm can maximize its bottom line. The interests who are at stake in the production of the Zero Pedal bicycle in Bangladesh are the corporate owners, investors and shareholders.

The standards which should be considered are the economic conditions in Bangladesh. The minimum wage for factory workers in Bangladesh is 5300 Bangladesh Taka. It must be considered that in currency exchange one hundred and three Bangladesh Takas per Euro are traded in monetary exchange. This means that the minimum monthly salary in Bangladesh is approximately equivalent to sixty eight United States dollars a month (RISE 1).

The blog which has been released by the blogger may exert little or no effect on the Green Move company’s brand and manufacturing operations in Bangladesh. The global community is aware that the working conditions in Bangladesh are economically distinct from the economic situations in industrialized nations (Devnath 1).

Viktor should engage in providing a bid for the lease of the commercial property in Russia. In the final years of the first decade of the twenty first century, Russia has experienced an expansive collection of overseas foreign development initiatives in the national economies which are emergent. The models for the Russian international organizations had already been in place prior to the dissolution of the USSR. The authorities in the USSR placed stringent controls over these companies which had been under government ownership. A consensus of these o0rganizations had been engaged in providing support for the Russian exports. Subsequent to the dissolution of the USSR over twenty years ago, this organization had been primarily reformed and privatized. As a result, the revenues which had been produced remained in Russia (Panibratov 8).

The secondary movement of globalization of the Russian organizations had initiated at the conclusion of the 1990s and persevered until 2008. The most significantly encountered organizational international model had been shown by the transnational acquisition of IPSCO by the Russian metalworking concern of Evraz for $4 billion. The Russian multinational enterprises have an inherent benefit in starting an emerging economy and functioning in an economic system which may be unfamiliar to the international organizations of industrialized nations (Panibratov 8).

The organizational issues which may have been the causal attributes of the legal and ethical gaps at the Green Movecompany may be that the stocks are owned  by the board of directors and a few of the members of Robert’s family.

There are some residual perils which may be incurred with providing kickbacks to the retailer in order to stock the zero pedal bicycles in their retail establishment (Thompson 1). The employee concerns with regards to the manufacturing facility in Bangladesh pose no legal liability to the Green Move company.

Works Cited

Devnath, Arun.”Bangladesh raises minimum wage for garment workers after unrest.” 14 November 2013. Web. 24 April 2014. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11- 13/namgladesh-garment-factories-tostay-shut-amid-worker-protest.html

Laws. “Motor vehicle defects.” Laws, 2013. Web. 24 April 2014. http://www.productliability.laws.com/motor-vehciel-defect>

Lexis Nexis Litigation Resource community. “Toyota agrees to fund settlement of unintended acceleration case worth up to $1.4 billion.” Lexis Nexis, 28 December 2012. Web 24 April 2014. http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/litigationm/b/litigation-blog/archives>

Panibratov, Andrei.” The influence of the state on expanding Russian MNEs: advantage or handicap?” Russia. NIS Center- IFRI, 2013.Web 24 April 2014.http://www.ifri.org/…/ifri-andreipanibratov

Perkins, Cami. “The increasing acceptance of the restatement (third) risk utility analysis in design defect claims.” Nevada Law Journal 4(2004): 609-625. http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi/article=1302&content=nlj

RISE Society. “Minimum wage board 2013 publishes gazette; basic salary go down.” Research Initiative for Social Equity Society, 2014.Web 24 April 2014. http://rise.bd.com/2013/11/22/mimimum-wage-2013-basic-salary-goes-down

Rodriguez, Juan Carlos. “$1.1 billion Toyota suit Move ahead with objector settlement.” Law 360, 9 January 2014. Web. 24 April 2014. http://www.law360.com/articles/499948/1-1b-toyota-suit-Move-ahead>

Thompson, James. “Woolworth buyer sacked over alleged kickback scheme as the supermarket giant prepares to audit suppliers’ ethical standards.” Smart Company, 18 February 2010. Web. 24 April 2014. http://www.smartcompany.com.au/growtheconomy/13375-20100218-woolworths-bbuyer-sacked-over-alleged-kickback-scheme-on-the-supoermarket-giant-prepares-to-audit-suppliers-ethical-standard>

Vorley, Geoff. Mini guide to root cause analysis. Guildford Surrey, UK: Quality             Management and Training (Publications) Ltd., 2008. Print.