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GM ignition switch supplied by Chinese firmGM ignition switch supplied by Chinese firm

It seems that I write these types of articles all too often—the ones about bad parts coming from Chinese suppliers, like the accelerator-pedal arms on the Aston Martin found to be molded of counterfeit plastic material resulting in the recall of 17,000 cars.An article in Canada's Business News Network stated that GM said the ignition switches that are to blame for its recent recall of millions of vehicles came from a Chinese supplier, Dalian Alps Electronics Co. Ltd.

Clare Goldsberry

July 7, 2014

2 Min Read
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Before we lay the blame totally at the feet of this Chinese supplier—there's certainly precedence for this given the history of recalled Chinese-made products and components—and call these parts defective, we need to ask if the parts were made to spec. GM has stated it was a design flaw and fired several people in the company's engineering department, as I wrote about in, "Problems with automotives have roots in the OEMs."

There's the real problem that moldmakers encounter. The mold may be built to exacting tolerances and specifications, but the part as designed by the OEM might have a design flaw. Many times, mold designers and engineers catch these design shortcomings when transforming the part design into a mold design, and can make suggestions to the OEM's engineers.

Mold designers and engineers can be an extension of their OEM customers' engineering department and many times can spot a potential problem prior to the mold build. It is then up to the OEM to take a serious look at this and work with the moldmaker to validate the potential problem, agree on a design change, and proceed with the mold build.

Sometimes, any change in design of a component requires extensive review by many people at the OEM in order to enact the change, which can be time consuming and costly. However, it's probably not as costly as a recall of several million vehicles.

The real downside of having a supplier in China is that they are too far away, and there may be a language barrier to overcome, as well, to communicate a noted design flaw, figure out a fix, and make the suggestion to the OEM, then produce the parts in a timely manner. So perhaps the assumption is made that the designer at the OEM knows what he or she wants, and the parts are made without question.

Moldmakers want to be an extension of their customers' engineering teams. They want to produce a mold that will make parts to spec, in tolerance, and that will hold up under the rigors of driving.

These GM ignition switches could have come from any supplier around the globe. If the switch was poorly designed, any supplier seeking to make the component to spec would have made a bad switch, no matter where in the world they are located.

About the Author

Clare Goldsberry

Until she retired in September 2021, Clare Goldsberry reported on the plastics industry for more than 30 years. In addition to the 10,000+ articles she has written, by her own estimation, she is the author of several books, including The Business of Injection Molding: How to succeed as a custom molder and Purchasing Injection Molds: A buyers guide. Goldsberry is a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. She reflected on her long career in "Time to Say Good-Bye."

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