Product Liability: Managing a Product Safety Crisis

Course Overview: 

Product safety is an increasingly high priority for the automotive supply chain, and rightly so:recent years have seen a string of global product safety crises in the industry. Car-makers and their suppliers are the subject of media and regulatory scrutiny like never before, and the trail of recalls, regulatory investigation sand litigation speaks for itself: despite significant advancements in quality management standards and techniques, automotive businesses continue to stumble into crises as a result of design and manufacturing errors, poor communication/document management or inadequate crisis planning.

And if you thought these issues were a concern only for OEMs, think again: with the increasing complexity of automotive supply chains, the growing opportunities and pressures of new technology and increasingly sophisticated regulatory frameworks, the reputational and financial risk for Tier 1 and 2 suppliers is real and growing. There has never been a more important time to understand and address your exposures. 

As part of its ongoing work to position the UK automotive sector as a leader in product safety and quality management, the SMMT QMD has teamed up with product liability expert sat leading global law firm Eversheds Sutherland to provide a series of sessions helping UK automotive businesses to understand their legal responsibilities and liabilities and to improve their systems so as to minimise the risk of product safety crises and respond better when they occur.

Eversheds Sutherland’s product compliance team have been working on these issues with OEMs and major Tier 1 suppliers for years. Thanks to the SMMT the whole UK automotive supply chain can now access their expertise.

The Product Liability Programme consists of the following modules:

1. Product Liability: Avoiding and mitigating product liability exposure
2. Product Liability: Managing a Product Safety Crisis

Product Liability: Managing a Product Safety Crisis

This module is aimed to help you and your business answer the following questions:

• How well prepared is your business for a product safety crisis?
• Who will make the decisions? How will you get to the bottom of the issue?
• Can you be confident that action can be taken quickly and decisively to protect public safety?
• How will you protect the business against the threat of claims, investigations and adverse publicity? 

This session will examine best (and worst) practice in planning for and responding to product safety crises.

Who Should Attend: 

Anyone, anywhere in an automotive supply chain who is concerned with improving the ability of their business to reduce the risk of safety crises and respond more effectively when they occur. 

The audience will vary depending on the size and structure of each business. In broad terms we would expect this module to be of most interest to senior decision makers responsible for handling a crisis scenario. 

Certification: 

Upon completion of the course you will receive a SMMT Quality Management (QMD) certificate of attendance.