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Pinto Fire Case Study

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Pinto Fire Case Study
Pinto Fire Case Study
MGT216
April 18, 2012

Roles Regarding Pinto Fire
In the 1970’s Ford Motor Company was faced with a questionable decision regarding the production and introduction of the Ford Pinto (Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 2006). The introduction of the Ford Pinto was Ford’s attempt at producing a stylish and affordable subcompact vehicle that possessed lower operating costs (Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 2006). The Pinto was rushed into production at a faster rate so the Ford Motor Company could remain in the lucrative subcompact car competition with strong competition coming from Volkswagen ("The Ford Pinto", 1982). While producing the Pinto, Ford’s upper management made a questionable decision regarding the positioning and protection of the fuel tank (Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 2006). Alternatives for a safer fuel tank with more protection and a safer location were available to Ford’s top-level managers at the time; however customer affordability (and style) took precedence over the consumer’s safety (Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 2006). Ford Motor Company restricted their engineers throughout the production of the Pinto some of the restrictions included mandating the cost of the Pinto be $2000.00 and the weight of the Pinto be no more than 2000 pounds (Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 2006). The restrictions were met and Ford Motor Company discovered the defect regarding the fuel tank and fuel system while conducting the pre-production crash tests; these tests revealed that rear-end collisions, even at low rates of speed, would rupture the fuel system leading to exploding gas tanks ("The Ford Pinto", 1982). The machines on the assembly line had already been tooled for production when the defect was discovered and Ford officials made the decision of continuing production Pinto as it was ("The Ford Pinto", 1982). At the time, Ford had half a


References: Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. (2006). Ford Pinto Case. Retrieved from http://www.bookrags.com/research/ford-pinto-case-este-0001_0002_0/ Ford Mission and Values. (2012). Retrieved from http://corporate.ford.com/our-company/our-company-news/our-company-news-detail/one-ford The Ford Pinto. (1982). Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:nydvN75vtlkJ:businessethics.qwriting.org/files/2012/01/HoffmanPinto.pdf+Case+Study+The+Ford+Pinto+W.+Michael+Hoffman&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShA-saxtmFub5KtpQx9bH8JdqSLRsCnCAS3rmBLwS6zUll3Hl8jK566q5j0e3RZMT7nQ-UI3O6CAHfTAH0frqS1eJFnRFe4bHl4Sbea68ebWDxswNwQ6ZBgdQ_iHG9kGY66w9FK&sig=AHIEtbSOyKoov8wRGSww6kdlT_NYf2rgJQ
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