Parts Churn and Takata

The Takata airbag debacle is another example of the terrible harm and immense costs arising from Parts Churn. Starting around 2013 Takata began experiencing catastrophic failures of their airbag inflator modules. The cause of the failure was a defect in the inflator's design. The defect in design was the use of ammonium nitrate to produce the gas which inflates the airbag. Over time ammonium nitrate can become unstable under certain conditions and produce a much greater explosive force than when in a stable condition. The total cost of the error has been estimated to be $24 billion.

However, the proximate cause of the injuries and deaths was not the design nor manufacture of the inflators. The proximate cause of the deaths and injuries was the Parts Churn manufacturing used by the automobile manufacturers as explained in subsequent articles.