For years, Toyota was the envy of most auto manufacturers as it concerned its ability to construct safe, quality cars. Toyota called their production method the “Toyota Way” and manufacturers worldwide studied the “way” to see what it could incorporate into their production procedures.
So the fact that these recalls and stopping of sales and production of eight of the company’s most popular models due to an “unintended acceleration” problem as well as the possible recall of the 2010 Prius due to brake problems are after all Toyota cars. And that is what makes it so stunning.
The unintended acceleration problem has been evolving for several months. At first Toyota claimed it was a floor mat problem, then recently they claimed that it was a mechanical problem. They have come up with a fix that involves a spacer to avoid the gas pedal from sticking.
Many are not satisfied because they believe that the issue isn’t mechanical but is due to a problem with the electronic throttle system. Lawyers who represent people who are suing Toyota point to this as the cause of the problem. And there has been some whispers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the lawyers may be right.
Toyota’s reputation has probably led us to forget that Toyota had issues back in 2004 and 2005. Back then Toyota recalled more than 1 million vehicles worldwide to replace steering relay rods that could crack. During this fiasco Japanese government officials seemed to be questioning whether Toyota knew about the defects of the rods and downplayed the risk. And after a 2004 accident involving a Toyota truck, local police actually pursued three Toyota quality control managers for being negligent in reporting defects. The Transport Ministry ordered Toyota to review its recall procedures and then report to the Ministry.
Meanwhile, Toyota president at the time Katsuaki Watanabe apologized at a news conference just like Mr. Akio Toyoda, the current president of Toyota, did over the recent fiasco. Failing and being forced to apologize for a problem that you caused is a traumatic and emotional thing for any executive of a Japanese company to do. It wasn’t that long ago when execs and government officials committed suicide after admitting mistakes.
And that could be the root of the problem. Because of the way the Japanese culture looks at failure, it becomes very difficult for an executive who may be aware of a problem to hone up to it.
And it may be possible that the heady times Toyota was experiencing made them complacent. The company had set industry records for sales, profits, market capitalization and more. As it achieved a goal, it set itself an even higher goal such as building more plants in more countries, cut costs further, reduce vehicle development time and pay bigger dividends to shareholders.
The company may have been seduced by the good times and its ability to achieve any goal it set for itself to the point where reaching the goal became more of a priority than other things. This appears to be a lesson that just about every automaker has learned sometime during its history. But how Toyota responds now could be the difference between a weaker and tarnished company for the long run or one that can shake off the controversy and be as great as it has been in the past.
via Detroit News
Most Active