Abstract
Relationships between products Liability, which grew out of America's legal principles regarding customer related problems, and quality assurance, which developed as part of the cross-functional management and is playing a central role in Japan's TQC activities, are examined from theoretical and practical points of view. The publicly available data on CCH's "Products Liability Reports" in America and MITI's "Consumer Product Accident Reporting System" in Japan, etc., are used both for systematic analysis of problems arising in consumer use and for clarifying the quality assurance steps where the problems originated. As a result of case studies and considerations, important issues to be developed are summarized as in the following four subjects: (1) Clarifying definitions of defect and dangerous stage, (2) Establishment of prediction technology for reliability and safety, (3) Systemization of evaluation technology, and (4) Re-examination on warranty and field service.
