Toyota to buy 13 million air-bag inflators from Takata rival

Time to buy some stock in Nippon Kayaku and sell Takata along the way. Toyota making this move could be the start of a domino effect that sends Takata down the drain.

By asking Nippon Kayaku to increase production could backfire, less quality control.

Toyota considers a switch to Nippon Kayaku inflators to be precautionary, in case further recalls are required, said the person with direct knowledge of the deal.

It is a smart investment on Toyota's side to insure future supply of quality air-bags in other potential cases of recall. Of course if quality was kept constant this would not even be an issue, but many cars/parts are made where labor and quality is cheaper like Takata-Mexico.

By asking Nippon Kayaku to increase production could backfire, less quality control.

-all of these air-bag suppliers are way over typical 100% production just to supply the massive amount of recalled air-bags. =Hopefully quality has not slipped too much and certainly not to the low quality standards that were benchmarked by Takata in Mexico.

The greater issue is are people willing to accept low quality cars/parts from employees/management that could care less. Is this the new trend and will people and governments (TPP agreement etc) accept these cars or will the recalls continue.

How do you know with an increase in production there would be decline in quality control? Have you been to any of the japan-based factory / manufacturing site? What are you implying?

@funkseoul

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150205/OEM11/150209914/takata-whistleblower-willing-to-testify-on-deadly-airbag-flaws

Takata has told regulators it found shortcomings in airbag inflator plants, including their controls for moisture, which can change the combustion characteristics of ammonium nitrate. The company uses the chemical in pellets that ignite, creating the gas that fills airbags when the devices are deployed. The Automotive Systems Laboratories R&D group was under pressure by management at Takata’s Tokyo headquarters to reduce costs compared with a previous-generation chemical propellant that used a compound called tetrazole, Lillie said. A shortage of high-quality, low-cost tetrazole resulted in Takata losing about $10 per passenger-side airbag inflator and earning a small margin on driver-side inflators, Lillie said. By moving to ammonium nitrate, Takata’s raw materials would be about one-tenth the cost, he said.

=It is really a combination of factors from the linked article. But it seems it was management's decision all the way.