Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Toyota's Big Screw Up



We all know that Japanese manufactured products have a good reputation in the world. They are reliable, reasonable in price, high quality, available, you name it. Their vesicles, there's no need to say, here are always on the top of the list of high sellers everywhere in North America. Based on that I purchased a new model a few months ago and I'm happy with it, overall.
But that's not how everyone else fells. There a huge recall on some models in North America, specially the US as there're safety concerns. Driver's have claimed that they were having serious problem with accelerator pedal on a number of models and brake pedals on Prius, the magnificent, supposed to be(!), hybrid.
These are the news that everybody knows. At least the ones who drive a Toyota. The problem is so big that the Secretary of Transportation in the US is involved. But what amazes me the most is the Japanese reaction to this. The problem is goin' to cost a lot to the company. Not in terms of maintenance of the problematic vehicles but also in terms of Lost Market. Sales will be dropped sharply if not have been dropped yet and is goin' to be added to the other problems that Toyota has been having since Gobal Economic Recession.
As someone who has been in Quality business for few year, I always knew Japanese as the pioneers of Quality methods. Terms and means like JIT, Kaizan, Mistake Proofing, Ishikawa Diagram and many more are all invented and have being applied by Japanese for years and those are their keys to success in electronic, automotive and many other industries. Why they're losing the track of their parts and facing such a disaster is a big question. They blame it on lack of proper communication between Toyota USA and the head office in Japan! Something that I hardly can believe it. Not that I'm saying that they're lying. I just can't believe this is happening! After all I have no problem with mine so far and I hope nothing happens. I hope they can solve the problem using their root cause analysis.
(Photo: The redesigned 2010 Toyota Corolla. It has more style and looks much nicer)

No comments: