Bridgestone Raises Quality Control

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TOKYO (AP) â€” One day after Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. accepted partial responsibility for tire separations linked to 148 deaths in the United States, its Japanese parent company said it would standardize its production processes worldwide in a step toward greater quality control.

Executives at Bridgestone Corp. said on Wednesday that they agreed with the conclusions of a four-month investigation by its Nashville, Tenn.-based Bridgestone/Firestone unit, which faulted poor tire design and manufacturing at its plant in Decatur, Ill., as well as user recommendations that had been made by Ford Motor Co.

``We are convinced that the tire separations were not entirely to blame, even though they may have been one of the causes for the accidents in which people were hurt or killed,'' Bridgestone Chief Executive Yoichiro Kaizaki told a news conference in Tokyo.

To prevent a repeat of the debacle, which resulted in the recall of 6.5 million tires in the United States, Tokyo-based Bridgestone plans to establish a ``global standard'' for tire development throughout its worldwide operations, Kaizaki said.

Bridgestone executives also said they would give closer scrutiny to product liability claims by U.S. consumers, admitting that they had not been sufficiently aware of such data in the past.

In a long-awaited report on the tire shreddings published by Bridgestone/Firestone on Tuesday, it cited four causes: the shoulder design of its 15-inch ATX tires, the unique way the rubber was processed at its Decatur plant, and the lower inflation pressure and the higher load limits recommended by Ford for its Explorer sport-utility vehicle. The U.S. automaker said its Explorer wasn't part of the problem.

Kaizaki said the Japanese tiremaker and its U.S. unit don't consider the tires that came apart to be ``defective'' since the separations were caused by a combination of those factors.

He also said that Firestone/Bridgestone's decision to set aside $750 million to cover the cost of the tire recall and potential legal liabilities was not an admission of legal responsibility. ``It is a fact that there have been injuries and deaths and that there will be lawsuits against us,'' he said. ``We must make provisions for that.''

Because it will book a one-time loss to cover that cost, Bridgestone earlier this month slashed its group profit forecast to 13 billion yen ($115.2 million) from 67 billion yen ($593.7 million).

Bridgestone/Firestone, which was acquired by Bridgestone in 1988, is expected to post a loss of $500 million in 2000, its first loss in eight years.

In the first product liability lawsuit scheduled for trial since the recall was ordered in August, relatives of a Texas couple who died after a tire blew out on their sport-utility vehicle reached a verbal settlement with Bridgestone/Firestone in October.

The terms were not disclosed.

â€”â€”â€”

On The Net:

Bridgestone/Firestone: http://www.bridgestone-firestone.com

Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com