The Case File Library
Publicly documented quality failures, dissected for lessons — case file by case file. Recalls, groundings, outbreaks: what actually failed, and which discipline would have caught it.
Vioxx: how ignored risk signals became a $4.85B quality failure
A blockbuster drug, a foreseeable risk, and an organization that kept running: Vioxx as a $4.85B lesson in what happens when quality signals are ignored.
PCA salmonella: how 'test until it passes' became a 28-year federal sentence
In quality, the first test result is the real one. Every test after that is a negotiation with reality — and the more you negotiate, the more you are telling yourself something you do not want to…
Intel Pentium FDIV: how the response, not the defect, cost $475 million
Intel's correct frequency estimate for the Pentium FDIV bug became a $475 million liability — not because the math was wrong, but because trust doesn't reduce to a single number.
Firestone: how ignored warranty data became 271 deaths
Firestone ignored warranty spikes for years before tread separations killed 271 people. A case study in what happens when field returns are a finance footnote, not a safety signal.
Deepwater Horizon: when defence-in-depth becomes defence-in-name
Every barrier meant to prevent Deepwater Horizon was present—each quietly hollowed out. When nobody verifies the load, defence-in-depth becomes just a checklist.
Tylenol: how a $100M recall against advice set the crisis gold standard
When cyanide-laced Tylenol killed seven in 1982, J&J pulled 31M bottles nationwide against FBI and FDA advice—a $100M bet that rewrote crisis response and saved the brand.
Philips Respironics: how known foam risk became a 5.5M-device recall
One of the largest medical-device recalls on record: 5.5M Philips CPAP and ventilator units pulled after foam degradation risks went unaddressed—costing billions.
Samsung Note 7: how schedule pressure defeated dual-sourcing strategy
Samsung's Note 7 crisis shows how launch pressure undermines even dual-sourcing: two suppliers, two different failure modes, one $5.3 billion root cause.
Therac-25: what removing a hardware interlock costs in human lives
When AECL replaced physical safety interlocks with software checks in the Therac-25, three patients died from radiation overdoses—and the risk register was never updated.
Challenger: how a known seal defect became an acceptable flight risk
How NASA's normalization of a known O-ring defect turned a preventable failure into the Challenger disaster.
Volkswagen dieselgate: how software deception became a €30B quality failure
Volkswagen shipped defeat-device software in roughly 11 million diesel vehicles — compliant on the test stand, up to 40x over NOx limits on the road. The €30B lesson: a quality system whose gates can be deceived eventually will be.
Toyota unintended acceleration: when growth outran the andon cord
Toyota's 9-million-vehicle recall crisis exposed what happens when quality infrastructure scales slower than production volume, silencing critical field signals.