[原创]戴尔电池召回事件：烫手的热山芋
<h2 class="post-title"><a href="http://www.56kg.com/public/post/459.html">戴尔电池召回事件：烫手的热山芋</a></h2><div class="post-body">电池爆炸：烫手的热山芋<br/> <br/>戴尔电池召回事件暴露了科技产业的软肋<br/><br/>万晓文译自经济学人2006年8月19日印刷版。(请看全文)</div>
<h5 class="post-tags">文章关键词: <a href="http://www.56kg.com/public/catalog.asp?tags=%E6%88%B4%E5%B0%94">戴尔</a> <a href="http://www.56kg.com/public/catalog.asp?tags=%E4%BA%A7%E5%93%81%E5%8D%B1%E6%9C%BA">产品危机</a> <a href="http://www.56kg.com/public/catalog.asp?tags=%E5%8F%AC%E5%9B%9E">召回</a> <a href="http://www.56kg.com/public/catalog.asp?tags=%E4%BC%81%E4%B8%9A%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86">企业管理</a> <a href="http://www.56kg.com/public/catalog.asp?tags=%E5%8D%B1%E6%9C%BA%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86">危机管理</a> <br/></h5>在一项探针测试中，工程师将金属探针穿过蓄电池来看是否会爆炸。在另一场测试中，实验室的技术员把电池放在烤箱里来模拟酷热天气下轿车里的设备环境，以此来检查电池内部反应。在产品生产阶段，会随机抽取批量电池进行温度，效率，能源密度与输出测试。<br/><br/>这
样严格的检测程序对于精密的充电电池来说还远远不够，充电电池是全世界数以十亿计的电子产品的核心。8月14号，戴尔，一家电脑公司，宣布它将召回消费者
使用电子产品公司索尼生产的410万的锂电池——用在了2004年到上月售出的笔记本电脑里。很多消费者报告说电池过热，着火甚至爆炸，这其中还包括今年
日本一次会议爆炸的案例，爆炸事件还被拍成视频在网络上传播。召回将花费两家公司约2亿至4亿美元。<br/><br/>某种程度上，戴尔的成功造就了它的失败。公司在将个人电脑商品化方面是先驱者，通过将电脑变成日常品即大量订单而实现规模经济，高效率的供应链条容不得半点错误。其创造的高节奏也意味着再小的错误也会产生很大的影响。<br/><br/>从1991
年锂电池引入市场以来，其易热易燃性就为大众所知。甚至，美国2004年因其火灾危害性而禁止飞机乘客携带。但是问题因制造流程而变得更加严重，因为制造
时需要保证百分百的安全环境。 Frost & Sullivan公司的Sara
Bradford说，“如果有一粒灰尘，一片小金属碎片，一颗小水珠进入蓄电池，哪怕是只是纳米级的大小，都可能引起过热爆炸”
。随着电子产品能源的需求快速增长，电池的需求也在相应增长。<br/><br/>这也部分归功于计算机行业的文化氛围。公司们都汲汲于产品的快速销售，对产
品质量却缺乏关注。他们以前经常嘲笑电信业的“五个九”原则——99.999％的可靠性——，因为“五个九”原则就意味着高产品周期。现在他们开始接受这
个原则作为自己的标准。这就是微软为什么要花那么长的时间去完善其操作系统windows vista的部分原因。<br/><br/>相比如1999年可口可乐污染案与2000年Firestone轮胎缺陷案这样的产品危机而言，应当称赞戴尔高效率的危机处理。公司宣称，自2005年12月以来，全美只发生了六起笔记本过热案，而因特网上的煽风点火才是真正的“火灾”。<br/><br/><br/>译文的英文原文：<br/><br/>Exploding batteries<br/><br/>Too hot to handle <br/>Aug 17th 2006<br/>From The Economist print edition <br/>Dell's battery recall reveals the technology industry's vulnerabilities<br/><br/> <br/>THERE
is the nail test, in which a team of engineers drives a large metal
nail through a battery cell to see if it explodes. In another trial,
laboratory technicians bake the batteries in an oven to simulate the
effects of a digital device left in a closed car on a sweltering day—to
check the reaction of the chemicals inside. On production runs, random
batches of batteries are tested for temperature, efficiency, energy
density and output. <br/><br/><br/> But the rigorous processes that go
into making sophisticated, rechargeable batteries—the heart of billions
of electronic gadgets around the world—were not enough. On August 14th
Dell, a computer company, said it would replace 4.1m lithium-ion
batteries made by Sony, a consumer-electronics firm, in laptop
computers sold between 2004 and last month. A handful of customers had
reported the batteries overheating, catching fire and even
exploding—including one celebrated case at a conference this year in
Japan, which was captured on film and passed around the internet. The
cost to the two companies is expected to be between $200m and $400m.<br/> <br/><br/>In some ways, Dell is a victim of its success. The company was a pioneer in turning the personal <br/>g
suppliers to the last penny, using economies of scale computer into a
commodity, which meant squeezin by placing huge orders, and running
efficient supply chains with little room for error. It all created a
volatile environment in which mistakes can have grave effects. <br/> <br/><br/>Since
lithium-ion batteries were introduced in 1991, their capacity to
overheat and burst into flame has been well known. Indeed, in 2004
America banned them as cargo on passenger planes, as a fire hazard. But
the latest problems seem to have arisen because of the manufacturing
process, which demands perfection. “If there is even a nano-sized
particle of dust, a small metal shard or water condensation that gets
into the battery cell, it can overheat and explode,” says Sara Bradford
of Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy. As the energy needs of devices
have grown rapidly, so have the demands on batteries.<br/><br/> <br/>The
computing industry's culture is also partly to blame. Firms have long
tried to ship products as fast as they possibly can, and they may have
set less store by quality. They used to mock the telecoms industry's
ethos of “five-nines”—99.999% reliability—because it meant long product
cycles. But now they are gradually accepting it as a benchmark. That is
partly why Microsoft has taken so long to perfect its new operating
system, Windows Vista. <br/><br/> <br/>Compared with other product
crises, from contaminated Coca-Cola in 1999 to Firestone's faulty tyres
in 2000, Dell can be complimented for quickly taking charge of a hot
situation. The firm says there were only six incidents of laptops
overheating in America since December 2005—but the internet created a
conflagration. <br/><br/>
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