Toyota chief says training (to maintain quality control) lapsed amid fast growth

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

TOKYO—Toyota's training of workers to maintain quality control failed to keep up with the company's rapid growth, its president Akio Toyoda said in an interview with a major Japanese business daily.

Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, said the problem became especially acute after Toyota's global production and sales topped 6 million vehicles in its fiscal year 2002.

Toyota's quality controls have been under fire after massive global recalls starting late last year for defective gas pedals, faulty floor mats and flawed braking affecting more than 8 million vehicles, mostly in North America.

"It has been tough and frustrating emotionally for me, but we must accept it as an inevitable," he told Japan's top business daily The Nikkei in a front-page interview published Thursday.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_14698846

[Lerkfish]

1. right ---it had nothing to do with bribing officials and burying evidence

its all the worker's fault.

especially frustrating as it seems to have been proven that there is a software problem, not the floor mats.

[WriteDown]

3. The Shogun is never wrong. nt

[Mopar151]

7. You are talking about a secondary problem

Which is caused by the primary problem, which was partially expressed by Mr. Toyoda. The unexpressed part of the primary problem has to with engineering priorities in defining quality.

[jody]

2. No, marketing & financial departments were allowed to override production & engineering. There is a

never ending battle between those two groups in every manufacturing corporation.

One group thinks only about sales and profits and the other thinks about quality and efficiency.

[icnorth]

4. Exactly. n/t

[WriteDown]

5. Sounds more like classic Japanese xenophobia to me...

"In the Nikkei interview, he promised to beef up quality controls, including promoting non-Japanese employees, to better respond to different customer needs, to become a "small Toyota," instead of focusing on sales expansion."

[jody]

6. "focusing on sales expansion" is an example of what I asserted with marketing & finance in control.

[WriteDown]

9. So they weren't focused on sales expansion before? Sounds like a bunch of bologna.

This has been going on a very long time, but Toyota has been adept at covering up their problems. Regardless, the buck stops at the top.

[Mopar151]

8. Maybe the "non-Japanese" employees include engineers

Who understand how cars in America rust, and how cars/light trucks in America are (not) maintained. Japanese inspection laws are very stringent, and require extensive maintainence/rebuilding every few years(5 ?).

[Romulox]

11. Reports are that American Toyota executives daren't contradict their Japanese bosses...

It's "not done".

[WriteDown]

12. I think there is a DU poster who works for a Japanese company...

He has told stories which support that.

[madrchsod]

15. from my few observations i would say that is true

[Romulox]

10. What a scammer! nt

[Romulox]

13. That some DUers would unrec this is proof that LBN should have recs turned off. nt

[madrchsod]

14. it ain`t the suppliers or the qc control at the american assembly plants...

toyota is a son of a bitch when it comes to qc at their american assembly plants...


toyoda is full of shit.

[elleng]

16. So the 'more, more,' 'faster, faster' guys won out,

until quality obviously ran out. SAME AS HAPPENED TO U.S. economy and financials. I do hope the analogy is WELL RECOGNIZED.

[DainBramaged]

17. Maybe if toYOYOda had UNION TRAINED WORKERS earning a LIVING WAGE they wouldn't be in this mess

instead of low wage, poorly educated folks from the poorest states in America.

[Mopar151]

18. Sorry, that's not the problem

The American workers who assemble Toyotas aren't at fault here. Toyota, Nissan, and Honda (Subaru, too IIRC) should all pay better than they do - and they should think about becoming self-insured for health insurance - with that many people, it would save a pile of money!
The real problem is outsourcing in general. All the big car companies, to varying degrees, have spun off parts suppliers with lower wages & benefits, and many non-union - doing jobs that union members used to do. The financial people in the big automakers like this, because they control the purchasing agents - and they feel it gives them more control over production and engineering. This is often illusory - but the bean counters like the illusions! A subcontractor will kiss ass endlessly to keep a big customer - and those crusty old production, tooling, and design guys don't kiss much ass. Also, this saves tying up capital modernizing parts plants - because the subcontractor, with orders in hand, will find his own financing. And if the sub does something nasty with the enviroment, or mistreatment of workers, union busting, what have you - the big guys are insulated. Even if they sold the subcontractor their old plant, or he's their golf buddy, or does substantially poorer work than their own plant did. Who made the Toyota computers - who wrote the code for the program? Toyota Engineering? Nippon Denso? Or some little unknown, that undercut the price? CTS, in Trailer Town(Elkhart) Indiana, is taking a lot of crap for the pedal assemblies - but they are a low wage subcontractor, working to the Toyota spec.

[DainBramaged]

19. Yes it is............

[Mopar151]

20. I will concede that if the engine control computers

And gas pedals were coming from A supplier with UAW labor- like Delphi (AC-Delco) or Visteon (Ford) - that these problems would be far less likely. Not so much because of labor quality, but because of more experienced "worldly" engineers and programmers, open-source code, and compatability with existing diagnostic systems.

[Mudoria]

22. Union workers aren't any better than non-union workers at their job

And the pay at these plants is more than a just a living wage in the states they are located at. The pay at a plant in Mississippi, Alabama or Tennessee are high paying jobs compared to the rest of the state. It's one thing to be pro-union and I am but let's not spew bullshit in the process.

[operationsman]

21. Worker Training

This is surprising because training is the basis of all Total
Quality Management Systems. If the workers' don't know what
they are suppose to do, they how can they be expected to
produce quality products? Toyota's vehicle sales have doubled
over the past 21 years. Clearly, management has dropped the
ball, focusing on growth over quality. To restore the Toyota
brand, Toyota must do 4 things, which are described in the
following post:

http://www.philosophiesofbusiness.com/blog/?p=224

Tim Mojonnier
http://www.philosophiesofbusiness.com/blog/