Cause And Effect Analysis: Pressure Of External Forces

Root cause 3 – Pressure of external forces
A cause-and-effect analysis was conducted on the external forces that caused the company to be pressured and choose its illicit strategy. The main causes to the problem of pressures from external forces were: technology, the industry forces, the emission standards and regulations, and the controls and monitoring. The automotive industry is going through a transformational era. There is a course of smaller automobile companies being acquired or merged by bigger companies. The industry is highly competitive; companies need to stay innovated and introduce new cutting edge products to stay competitive. Another factor that has had great effect on the automobile industry is the great pressure to create environmentally
The advantages a diesel care enjoys compared to gasoline powered cars is that it gets more torque, it achieves better mileage and holds its long-term value better. In contrast the exhaust of diesel car contains more nitrogen dioxide than most gasoline-powered engines. Due to this other automobile companies that had had similar strategic plans as Volkswagen, did not go through with them, as it was impossible to meet the new standards while maintaining engine performance. As the technology, did not exist it would have required large capital investment and development, unfortunately technological development and investments are expensive. (Blackwelder, Coleman, Colunga-Santoyo, Harrison, & Wozniak,
Preceding the Volkswagen scandal the fines and penalties for quality problems within the industry have (previously) been small. This may have created a sense of security, that the risks of cutting corners on quality were small. Another factor within controls and monitoring that was in effect, was that automakers are required to self-certify every car model they have on sale. Unfortunate external testing on these cars is small scale and are done seldom. For example, early the EPA verifies only about 15% of these certifications (Atiyeh, 2016). These self-certification tests that are required from all automakers have been reported to be outdated as they do not impersonate on-road-conditions. The preceding leaves massive loopholes within the certification processes of cars, that have been exploited by many in the industry. Unfortunately, there is no globally standardized control and monitoring system, where test are done externally. This is probably greatly due to the differing standards from country to