I for one don't think an employee should get the blame or punishment for a production error like this; after all, he was taught by someone, was instructed by someone, was overseen by a foreman / manager, and his work was checked (possibly numerous times) by QC and seen by other employees.

Yes, absolutely. This is at the heart of The Toyota Way (aka lean). Failure (and, on the corollary, success) is always cultural.

this is true up to a point. really depends if this was a first time such mistake was made, was it a bad judgement or was she following company practice? It is extremely hard for a manger or QA to insect 100% of every employees work.

Oh, goodness no, I don't suggest that firing would be proper action!

Part of making new things is learning how to make them, and that means mistakes. I hope they get this sorted out and everyone comes away happy.

And if you fire somebody because they make a mistake, the result is a culture of coverups and blame shifting.

"[D]ue to body side alignment adjustments in the factory, the bonded section of the joint was compromised and the welded section of the joint was weakened in some cars."

Sounds more like the frame isn't holding tight enough tolerances for the body to be "right," so they are pushing or pulling the frame into position on the factory floor. The forcing of the frame into position is what broke the weld.