Is Toyota still the number one volume manufacturer of cars in the world?

By Peter Thoeobald

I think we can all agree that Toyota’s hard won reputation for being the very benchmark for excellence in car manufacturing has taken a serious blow. Toyota, not unused to having the eyes of the worlds media firmly focused on them, usually for achieving industry leading customer satisfaction results or claiming the number one spot as the worlds largest vehicle manufacturer, will now have to contend with a far more hostile global media, eager to pounce upon any further quality issue. Be prepared to see even the barest indication of a quality problem from Toyota, which would usually go unreported by the global media, making it to headline news over the next few months. I think it was Brendan Beehan who wrote that, ‘there is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.’ Now not for one minute do I believe this to be an obituary for Toyota, so perhaps with a little positive spin and proactive customer support, Toyota can emerge from this with some good PR. However with what seems to be an incredibly slow reaction to the core design issues and a questionable level of customer communication throughout the process, I think this may be the exception to Mr. Beehan’s hypothesis that proves the rule.

As, so often seems to be the case the passage from hero to villain in the eyes of the world can be a short one. There is a strange human trait which seems to almost relish in the prospect of pulling down our own idols, need I remind you of the how vehemently public opinion turned on the likes of Microsoft and Wal-Mart. Consequently, I believe Toyotas current predicament will last for some time, whether or not this will cause long term damage to both their reputation and ultimately market share only time will tell, but vocal public opinion does not necessarily influence where the dollars ultimately end up being spent.

But what can we learn from a quality standpoint about these incidents. From what I can glean from Toyotas and various governments’ press releases is that the core issue is not one related as such to the manufacturing processes, but rather a design issue. Which, to many of us who have been working in and around the automotive industry for a few years is not too surprising. The focus and drive from a quality standpoint has long been on the production elements of the quality system and although most of the systems operated within the automotive industry have a design element it has always been an area that by its very nature is resistant to the application of structured controls. Designers are and need to be free thinkers and as such do not like to work within structured design environments that require constant input from, and communication to life cycle and DFM engineers, suppliers and procurement specialists. The paradox being that the very processes that are put in place to protect the consumer and indeed the company from design related issues are also the ones that can bog an organization down in excessive paperwork and bureaucracy, stifling the very design elements that it is trying to encourage.

What will be interesting to see is how Toyota and the automotive industry in general react to this issue, if by definition, the much vaunted Toyota production system, has failed in its primary objective, then how must this system change if it is to achieve its objective and what will be the wider implication to the industry as a whole?