Question

Your airline was one of the affectecldcorganisations by the Koito problem. Discuss both quantitative and qualitative variables you would have considered when measuring the perfomance of Koito industries to avoid the problems caused.

The Importance of Supplier Management and Measurement: Koito Industries Ltd Sometimes it is not enough to merely have a supplier performance measurement system in place. The buyer must also ensure that the performance data is accurate and all encompassing. Any given supplier may be able to manipulate or falsify the product performance data that it provides to its customers. Koito Industries Ltd, a Japanese aircraft seat supplier based in Yokohama, admitted to irregularities in certain safety testing data regarding approximately 150,000 aircraft passenger seats supplied to Airbus SAS and Boeing Co., ultimately impacting some 32 airlines worldwide. Due to growing demand of its aircraft passenger seats that had resulted in extremely tight production schedules, Koito utilised a computer program that created false safety data to meet standards regarding seat safety strength. In addition, some safety tests were omitted in their entirety, and in other cases safety data came from tests conducted on different production lots. The Japanese Transport Ministry determined that Koito altered its computer testing programs so that seat shock levels would read higher than they actually were. Additionally, some aircraft seat designs were unilaterally modified without proper notification. This erroneous safety data was revealed only when a whistle-blower made the information available publicly. As a result of this scandal, the president of Koito Industries made a public apology and promised to retest all of the aircraft seats in question, repairing or replacing by the end of the year those that did not meet safety requirements. In addition, he admitted that falsification activities had dated back to the mid-90s and had been ongoing “organizational culture” emanating from the department which oversaw the testing.The European Aviation Safety Industry (EASI) pulled its approval for Koito seats and contemplated issuing an airworthiness directive (AD). The net effect was that Airbus was unable to meet delivery dates for certain aircraft equipped with Koito-sourced seats. For example, Airbus had to delay delivery of Singapore Airlines’11th A-380 and indicated that about 2 per cent of the global Airbus fleet were equipped with Koitosourced seats. In addition, delivery of Boeing aircraft, such as the 777-300ER, was affected as well. Some of the other airlines affected included: Japan Airlines, Air Canada, KLM, All Nippon Airlines, Thai Airways International, and Scandinavian Airlines. In addition to affecting new aircraft production, substantial delays in retrofitting and updating existing aircraft have also occurred. Due to its large number of affected aircraft, including Koito seats installed in first, business and premium economy, and economy classes, Boeing was affected more severely than was Airbus. Therefore, Boeing sent a supplier development team to Koito to assist in reviewing and redeploying its quality management system. In addition, Boeing has had to work individually with each affected airline customers to ensure that no safety of flight issues existed.

Answer 1

Answer:

Our airline was one of the affected organizations by the Koito problem. We are discussing both quantitative and qualitative variables we would have considered when measuring the performance of Koito industries to avoid the problems caused as below .

Quantitative Variable:

• Lack of supplier management system in place is the key variable that falls under the quantitative variable as it will contain lot of quantitative variables to be measured on the routine basis and will be storing quantitative data for the analysis purposes.
• This is to ensure that supplier have accurate performance data. Supplier data can be manipulated and supplier may make some changes in the data to suit his data accuracy. So as a buyer we need to ensure that the data are accurate and we need to plan some background investigation for ensuring the correct test data of supplier.
• Safety test data were improper and these were from different production tests. The cause for this was the improper computer software that created the problem.
• The magnitude of irregularity was observed for 150000 aircraft having safety data irregularities. This is affecting around 32 airlines worldwide, which have this problem in their seats.

Qualitative Variables:

• Irregularities in safety testing data are the key qualitative variable in the test data of the supplier for the safety requirements of the seats. This is the main cause for the whole problem and its quality was not measured adequately.
• Seat shock read higher value than actual it shock. This is the key qualitative problem. The shock observing attribute is not correct.
• Aircraft seat designs were changed without notification by the supplier. This is the big mistake does by supplier. Hence it needs to be ensured that supplier should not repeat similar action in future.