Toyota's damage reputation

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Where Toyota went wrong

By Alex Taylor III, senior editor February 1, 2010: 7:13 PM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- When Toyota gets around to doing one of its famous "root cause" analyses of the Great Accelerator Recall, it should start by looking in the mirror.
As the company grew to become the world's largest automaker, it failed to adjust its corporate structure to accommodate its altered scale. And in its zeal to deliver profits as well as revenue, it may have overlooked fundamental principles that used to underpin its business.



Toyota, in other words, forgot what the Toyota Way was all about.
Start with the part being blamed: an accelerator pedal mechanism. It is produced for Toyota (TM) both by Denso of Japan and CTS (CTS) of Elkhart, Indiana. Toyota used to run with just one supplier for a given part, with whom it had close ties and a long relationship. But ever since a fire at a Japanese brake supplier in 1997 shut down the company's production at 20 plants for five days, it decided that it needed a second source as a backup.

With the accelerator, though, it neglected to make the parts from the two suppliers interchangeable. According to one report, the Denso and CTS mechanisms use different wiring harnesses. In other words, Toyota, the master of communization, neglected to ensure that identical parts from two suppliers were, in fact, identical. Even if they were identical in design, the fact that the CTS part apparently developed defects and the Denso part did not, suggests there were other differences.

What to do if your car's on the recall list
Such mixups are not surprising because Toyota still uses lines of reporting that date back to its first days in North America a half-century ago and which is rarely found in U.S. business today.
The management style is one where everything has to do be dealt with at the top, a chimney approach in a networked world. The result is a system in which problems can get lost and solutions get delayed.

Here's how the system might have worked in this case: when Toyota Motor Sales in California began to get complaints from customers about sticky accelerators, the news would have traveled first to sales headquarters in Japan. There executives would have had to have send the issue to product engineering for a design fix, and then to manufacturing for implementation. Only then would it have found its way back to the U.S.

Talk about connect the dots. If Toyota had an integrated headquarters in North America, with one person in charge of sales, engineering, and manufacturing, the complaints might have been communicated almost instantaneously -- and fixed nearly as quickly.

And then there is the controversial topic of cost-cutting. As recently as December, Toyota was asking its suppliers to reduce parts costs by 30% over the next three years. That followed an earlier program begun in 2005 that grouped automotive components into categories and tried to lower costs on each one.

CTS said it manufactured the accelerator mechanism exactly to Toyota's standards, and undoubtedly it did. But it was also noted by executives that the parts subject to failure had experienced excessive wear. Both CTS and Toyota stated that they are working together on pedals that meet "tougher" specifications.

0:00 /5:47Toyota exec confident in pedal fix

Was Toyota so zealous in its cost-cutting that its specifications weren't robust enough? That's one of the questions facing new CEO Akio Toyoda as he plunges in to this debacle. How he decides could set a tone for his entire administration.
Today, Toyota employees are feeling shell shocked. They believe they have done the right thing by recalling millions of cars to fix faulty carpets that may interfere with the accelerator pedal, and another several million to repair the accelerator itself.

But the scale of the recall is huge, and the decision to suspend both sales of existing cars and production of new ones is creating enormous problems for dealers, private customers, and fleet buyers. Meantime, the 24-hour news cycle has pummeled the company, and the automotive press, much of it based in Michigan, is having a field day.

Whatever happens, the solution to this affair is going to be expensive. Toyota will be paying for repairs on all those cars and the damage won't stop there. One dealer tells Fortune he is essentially writing off his Toyota new car business for 30 days and another says he is planning for 60 to 90 days of no sales.

In the end, though, the money will be well-spent if Toyota, famous as a learning corporation, can take some lessons away from the episode. It needs to modernize its corporate structure, revisit the basic elements of its product development system, and reconsider the impact of its aggressive cost-cutting. That should help to realign this remarkable company to "the Toyota way."
 
walichagua volume over quality hawa jamaa...,since then thing were never the same!!thy failed into the same trap GM failed into.
 
Toyota sasa watalia maana walikuwa kwenye mstari wa mbele na Prius ambayo inakupa up to 75 miles a galon naona Honda watachukua ujiko sasa na hybrid zao.
 
I don't think this will do any damage to the Toyota brand name. Toyota has a good track record of durability. They will probably lose a couple of billion dollars and that's about it.
 
I don't think this will do any damage to the Toyota brand name. Toyota has a good track record of durability. They will probably lose a couple of billion dollars and that's about it.

Unaongelea wateja wapi wa Europe, USA, Japan or the rest of the world?
 
Kote kote duniani- jina la toyota limejiimarisha tokea miaka ya sitini. Zaidi ya miaka 30 sasa wameweza kutengeza gari madhubuti zaidi vile vile kwa gharama nafuu kuliko wale wapinzani. Hakuna dalili yeyote inayoonyesha haya matatizo yataathiri Toyota kwa muda mrefu.
 
Kote kote duniani- jina la toyota limejiimarisha tokea miaka ya sitini. Zaidi ya miaka 30 sasa wameweza kutengeza gari madhubuti zaidi vile vile kwa gharama nafuu kuliko wale wapinzani. Hakuna dalili yeyote inayoonyesha haya matatizo yataathiri Toyota kwa muda mrefu.

Kama unaongelea Europe ndio kitumbua kisha ingia maji hakuna anayetaka kununua tena hizo Prius zao. Kwanza magari wanayouza wateja hawayapapatikii na ni wenye uwezo wa kununua brand new cars. Mfano Prius mpya inauzwa UK kutoka Toyota dealer £20,000 hadi £24,000 inategemea kama unataka leather sits etc. believe me watahaha. Western world sio kama third world countries hawataki shida utakuja niambia.
 
Mkuu Wacha1, Toyota is suffering already, consumers are running away from this brand in big numbers and in my opinion Toyota`s February sales figures will be worse as compared to those in January. Hopefully, they would be able to resolve this problem very soon.

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Auto sales up - but not for Toyota

By Chris Isidore, senior writer February 2, 2010: 5:42 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. auto sales rose 6% in January, although results were generally disappointing. Sales were hurt by weak demand from consumers and the well-publicized problems at Toyota Motor.


Toyota said Tuesday that January sales fell 16% from a year earlier, worse than a forecast of a 12% year-over-year decline from sales tracker Edmunds.


Toyota had to suspend the sales of its most popular models for much of the last week of January due to a problem with sticking a gas pedal that caused unexpected acceleration.
But Toyota's problems didn't appear to provide much of a lift for other automakers.
The halt in sales created more confusion in the market than demand for other automakers' products, according to Ken Czubay a Ford Motor vice president.
"There was not a significant movement yet. People weren't going to overreact to the uncertainty," Czubay said.

Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500), General Motors, Nissan and Korean automaker Hyundai Motor all reported improved January sales compared to a year ago. But Honda Motor (HMC) and Chrysler both said January sales fell from the same period last year.
But most of the companies reporting increases suffered from declining sales to consumers, a sign of continued headwinds facing the industry.

Ford's retail sales fell 5%, which company officials termed disappointing. GM's retail sales fell 10%, although that was primarily due to the winding down of the Pontiac and Saturn brands, which GM is closing, and the Saab and Hummer brands that GM is in the process of selling.

Retail sales at GM's four remaining brands -- Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac -- edged up 3%.
But GM and Ford reported big jumps in fleet sales to government and businesses, particularly rental car companies. Ford estimated that there was a 50% jump in industrywide fleet sales compared to a year ago, when the economic crisis led to a plunge in purchases by rental car companies.

Ford's fleet sales soared 154% from those depressed levels. GM's fleet sales more than tripled.
Overall, GM reported a 14% rise in sales compared to a year ago, better than the 9% rise forecast by Edmunds.com. But its sales tumbled 30% from December.
Ford reported that its overall sales rose 24% from January 2009, although they fell 37% short of December's total. The gain was weaker than the forecast of a 33% rise by Edmunds.com though.

Still, Ford's sales were good enough to lift its market share and vault it back into the No. 2 position in terms of U.S. sales, passing Toyota Motor (TM).
Ford also has been on a run of critical success, with its Fusion sedan winning several "Car of the Year" awards in recent months. Sales of the Fusion rose by 49%, pacing similar growth across all of its car models. But sales gains of Ford light trucks and crossovers were far more modest.

Nissan's overall sales rose 16% from a year ago, a bit better than expectations of a 14% increase.Hyundai Motor, which includes both the Hyundai and Kia brands, posted a combined 13% rise, far better than the 1% drop forecast by Edmunds.com.
But Honda disappointed with a 5% drop in sales rather than the expected 3% gain. Sales at Chrysler Group fell 8%, rather than the 6% increase that was expected.

Paul Ballew, a consumer economist at financial services company Nationwide, said automakers will continue to face significant trouble because Americans are still not ready to spend big. He doesn't expect a strong recovery in auto sales until the middle of the decade.
"Consumers are hesitant for legitimate reasons," he said. "We're expecting the recovery to be very modest and gradual."
 
Toyota's no-show leadership

By Alex Taylor III, senior editorFebruary 4, 2010: 12:26 PM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The last time anyone looked, Toyota was a Japanese company controlled by a Japanese family. But during the entire accelerator recall crisis -- now complicated by brake problems with the Prius -- they have been all but invisible.

These are no absentee owners. The Toyoda family built Toyota Motor (TM) into the largest auto company in the world and the leader of its third generation, Akio Toyoda, is president. His father, Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda, who turns 85 on February 17th, is the company's honorary chairman and, according to associates, he remains deeply involved in the company's operations.

So with this rich history behind them, who did Toyota send out this week to answer questions about the accelerator recall? An American sales executive named Jim Lentz.
Now Lentz is one of the smartest and most capable executives in the auto industry, but he isn't even Toyota's number one executive in the U.S. Nor is he an engineer, which makes him less then perfectly qualified to answer technical questions about how an automobile starts and stops.

But what's really worse is that he is not a member of the Toyoda family. Akio Toyoda has strongly held views about the importance of quality and reliability in Toyota's history, and the role of his family in the company's success. But neither he nor his father has confronted the recall problem head on in public. The younger Toyoda has even gotten the nickname "no-show Akio."

It is frankly surprising and hard to explain. In a good year, North America provides the bulk of the profits for Toyota and is a major contributor behind Toyota's enormous market capitalization. But now, at a time of its biggest crisis, when the flow of those profits is threatened, Toyota has allowed America to fend for itself.

One senses a deep debate going on inside the company. On one side is the American operation arguing for Japan to get significantly involved in the recall in a way that the public can see. But America has always had a difficult time making its opinions heard on the other side of the Pacific. That difficulty has been exacerbated because of the retirement at year's end of a senior California-based public relations operative.

Back in Japan, executives are struggling to come up with an answer to public doubts about Toyota cars and trucks. But they are traditionally slow to act and their sense of how to communicate with American audiences is not well-developed.

Keep in mind that Toyota is a company run by engineers who like definitive answers to even the most complex problems. They are uncomfortable with softer subjects -- especially in different cultures -- that aren't easily understood through a root-cause analysis.


0:00 /1:14Toyota posts profit despite recall
It is likely that Japan is all too mindful of the drubbing that Ford CEO Jac Nasser took a decade ago when he become the automaker's spokesman in the Explorer rollover crisis. Nasser became something of a laughingstock because of his thick Australian accent, and there were predictable references to Crocodile Dundee.

Most Toyota executives speak excellent English, though they often prefer to have interpreters translate for them. They are doubtless concerned about the impact of their accents on Toyota's image. Still, they would likely win points for sincerity and conviction were they to speak for themselves when appearing before the American public.

Prolonged media appearances in times of crisis by top executives may not be not the Japanese way. But it is the American way and, increasingly, the global way.
Toyota has struggled for years to shed its conservative habits and to become more of a global company. But the slow progress it had been making in this direction has been reversed by its handling of the current crisis.

There is a Japanese expression: genchi genbutso, meaning "go see for yourself." It is an integral part of the renowned Toyota Production System. For any problem to be solved, it has to be inspected first at the place where it has occurred.

It is time for the Toyoda family and their associates to go and be seen at a place where Toyota cars are designed and built so they can face the public, explain what has gone wrong and lay out how it plans to fix them. Such a simple act will go a long way toward defusing the current crisis -- and enabling Toyota to keep growing as a global company.
 
Too much technology in so-called ultra-modern hi-tech autos of recent years like Toyota PRIUS (main culprit in this scandal).

I'm inclined to think most of them computer chips, electronic sensors, satellite navigation, dvd entertainment and whatnot are simply superfluous as far as getting one's ass from point A to point B.
 
No doubt Toyota could have handled this issue better but I think it's blown way out of proportion especially in the western media. I smell people waiting eagerly for a legal payday.

¬K
 
2010-02-12 10:04:00
Toyota Tanzania recalls vehicles

By Al-amani Mutarubukwa
THE CITIZEN

Toyota Tanzania Limited yesterday announced a recall of motor vehicles sold locally, as the giant Japanese auto manufacturer continues to grapple with its global crisis of defects found in several of its popular makes.

The Tanzanian firm, which is the sole authorised Toyota dealer in the country, said in a notice made available to The Citizen in Dar es Salaam that it was recalling some of the cars it had sold locally to fix braking-related problems at its own expense.

Worldwide, Toyota, which is Japan?s leading car manufacturer, has recalled more than 400,000 vehicles, following customers? complaints about defects in some models.

However, anxious Toyota car owners will be relieved to learn that only a few units of the affected model have so far been sold in Tanzania.

?The official update we have received from Toyota Motor Corporation to date is that seven units of the new Corolla saloons sold in 2008 and 2009 by Toyota Tanzania Ltd have been affected,? reads part of the notice.

The notice says the owners of the affected vehicles had been notified and the replacement parts are being dispatched by courier to Dar es Salaam.

"The special service repair required in respect of these affected vehicles will be performed at no cost to the customers," the notice further states.

However, the notice clarifies that no other new ?4x4? and ?4x2? right-hand drive Toyota vehicles supplied by Toyota Tanzania Ltd will be affected.

The concerned customers have been advised to contact the Toyota Tanzania sales and marketing department on Nyerere Road in Dar es Salaam for details.

On Tuesday, Toyota president Akio Toyoda apologised to customers, as he announced the global recall of more than 400,000 of their 2010 hybrid models, including the popular Prius, over problems in their anti-lock braking systems.

"We do apologise for the inconvenience and concerns we've given to the customers," the president told a media briefing at the company?s headquarters in Tokyo.

"Quality is our lifeline for Toyota. The company will work to recover its customers' trust," he promised.

Last week, the company admitted there was a problem with the software that controls the anti-lock braking system of the 2010 model, which had been identified and rectified in the cars that started to roll off of the assembly line in Japan last month.

Although, the car maker had fears over the nearly 37,000 cars already on the road in the United States, or the more than 200,000 units of the 2010 model, but its officials expressed confidence on Friday that a solution was "near."

Meanwhile, the total number of vehicles Toyota Motor Corporation has had to recall for accelerator pedal related problems, now stands at 8.1 million.

The figure includes a total of 5.8 million vehicles recalled after it was found that the pedal sticks in the floor mats.
A total of 4.5 million vehicles are being recalled over accelerator pedals, which, as they wear out, do not bounce back when the driver takes his foot off.

Toyota officials estimate the total cost of the global recall at $2 billion, including the loss of 100,000 vehicle sales in the US and Europe.
 
No doubt Toyota could have handled this issue better but I think it's blown way out of proportion especially in the western media. I smell people waiting eagerly for a legal payday.

¬K

Imagine loosing your loved ones from something which is preventable. Yeah! When people have lost their lives due to this problem, Western media should be able to ask tough questions in order to prevent more tragedies.
 
Japan Inc.'s reputation rides on Toyoda

By Kevin Voigt, CNN
February 24, 2010 2:56 a.m. EST


Who is Akio Toyoda?

Political ire toward Toyoda growing in Japan
Toyoda at first said he wouldn't attend hearing, then accepted formal invitation
Government monitors effects of Toyota's massive recall on Japanese exports


(CNN) -- As Akio Toyoda prepares to sit before the klieg lights of a U.S. Congressional committee in Washington on Wednesday, the midnight lights of television sets will glow in corporate offices and government halls of power in Tokyo.
Riding on his testimony, Toyoda -- the grandson of the company founder who took the reins as Toyota president in June -- carries not just the reputation of his company and his future leading it, but the weight of Japan Inc.
Political leaders in Tokyo will be watching as the fate of Japan's premier brand falters in the market Toyota --- and most Japanese exports --- depend most upon.
Yet also growing in Japan is an undercurrent of conspiracy theories: That the U.S. government, now majority owner of General Motors -- the world's largest automaker before Toyota took the throne last year -- has an interest in bringing down the reputation of the company and its leader.
"There was a cab driver who was telling me that the other day, as we were driving in a Toyota," said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies at Temple University's Japan campus in Tokyo. "There's a conspiracy theory, which some people are inclined to believe, that a nexus of events in the U.S. is making Japan a juicy scapegoat."
Regardless, "the audience here is asking, is Akio going to deliver? He has a lot at stake not to," Kingston said.
"Japan has lived through a 'lost decade,' which is now entering its third decade, and inside this national malaise they could at least bask in the reflective glory of the Toyota Motor Corp.," Kingston said. "All of the sudden, that is at risk."

Indeed, the nation's press is heaping pressure on the shoulders of Toyoda to defend Japan Inc. before U.S. legislators and consumers. "Considering that Toyota represents Japan's corporate identity, a loss in confidence would potentially affect all Japanese products," said a Friday editorial in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's equivalent to The Wall Street Journal.

"In testifying before the House committee, we hope Toyoda will take to heart his position as the de facto captain of this nation's manufacturing industry," said a Saturday editorial in the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper.
Known as "The Prince" in Japan, the scion of the Toyoda has stumbled badly in the eyes of the usually deferential Japanese press, after he disappeared from public view for two weeks while the recalls mounted across the globe.
"There were editorials in the Nihon Keizai and Asahi the day after his first press conference basically saying, 'It's a day late and a dollar short -- you've made us look bad before the world,'" Kingston said.
More than 8 million cars have been recalled in North America, Europe and Asia. Besides three U.S. congressional committees, a grand jury has subpoenaed documents from Toyota. A number of lawsuits have been filed against the company. Legal concerns have been heightened by revelations that U.S. Toyota staffers boasted about negotiating a limited recall on some vehicles that saved the company $100 million.
Even Toyoda's decision to appear before Congress was a one-step forward, two-steps back process -- at first saying he wouldn't attend, before accepting a formal invitation from the committee --- which only added to the political ire toward Toyoda at home.
"It's a pity that we heard he was going, then he wasn't going, (and) now he is going," said Seiji Maehara, Japan's transport minister.
Added the Yomiuri editorial: "In the end, Toyoda decided to attend the hearing 'willingly.' But this comes after the carmaker had once decided not to send him. Toyota's initial decision apparently reflected its desire to serve its own interests first and foremost."
The financial crisis both crippled trade and rose the value of the yen in Japan, decreasing profits at home that caused the nation's economy to be among the worst affected by the global recession.
Keisuke Tsumura, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, said the government is carefully monitoring the effects of Toyota's massive recall on Japanese exports as a whole. "It is a great disappointment" to see slower auto sales in Japan, in addition to the adverse effects of Toyota's safety problem on exports, Tsumura said.
Added Seiji Maehara, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: "There is a high possibility that Toyota has not firmly revealed some of its information. I would like to further reason the point of how to raise their awareness that Toyota has to give more information to the US, even if it is only of a minor importance."
Not lost on the Japanese is the fact that Toyoda is sitting before U.S. legislators who have little to gain by pulling their punches with Japan's "Prince."
"An important factor behind the strong criticism leveled against Toyota is the mixed feelings held by Americans about the carmaker's success on their soil," the Yomiuri editors wrote.
"In recent months, with autumn's midterm election approaching, there has been a sharp rise in protectionism expressed among members of Congress. If Toyota fails to properly act under these circumstances, it could deal a serious blow to the trust in Japanese products as a whole."
 
Tuwape pole tu Toyota maana sasa wanaanza kufunga viwanda Ulaya biashara kwishnei.
 
Naona jamaa wamemuamulia,lakini hakuna cha maana hapo.Je kwanini Wamarekani wamemuita kumhoji na je kila nchi ikiamua kumuita itakuwaje? kwa sababu hata uk na nchi nyingine ni wateja wazuri wa Toyota.
 
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