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Abstract:
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Unintended declines in the production quality of consumer items can pose safety hazards to consumers, increase failure rates, and shorten product life - which, in turn, causes unexpected financial burdens and potential legal liabilities to manufacturers. In monitoring the field performance of its products, a manufacturer needs to determine whether an adverse change has occurred and, if so, assess the implications for product safety and reliability. A decision to recall sold product must involve identification of the units affected, typically by time or source of production. Drawing on experience with diverse products and industries, we illustrate how statisticians can play an important role in such investigations by framing the issues in a conceptual model, extracting information from imperfect manufacturing data, and communicating findings to upper management and regulatory agencies.
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