Toyota's Quality Management Crisis

The case study discusses Toyota's quality management system and a major recall issue that occurred in 2009 due to improper floor mats causing unintended acceleration. The company recalled over 8.5 million vehicles and took steps to address the problem, including installing precision cut bars to reduce friction. The incident highlights the importance of quality assessment, root cause analysis, and data sharing mechanisms to prevent similar issues in the future.

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Quality Management
Toyota
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TOYOTA QUALITY MANAGEMENT 1
Quality management within production lines have been a major concern for organizations all
around the world as it directly impacts the value creation for the customers. There are various
methods that are applied by the companies to ensure that the product quality matches the taste
and preferences of the customers. Toyota is a one such company that applied Toyota Production
System (TPS), based on Japanese (developed by Deming) Quality Mechanism, to ensure the
quality of its car production. TPS focuses on six sigma quality for the production (Liker, 2004).
In 2009, the company had to call number of Toyota vehicles from United States. The reason
behind the call was pointed to the improper floor mats which was unnecessarily pressing the
accelerators. The company called of different models with this issue which was surprisingly
around 3.8 million. The sudden recalling was prompted by the car crash that killed the driver.
The car was Lexus whose accelerator stuck due to the mat beneath the driver’s seat. There was
other such incidents that took place in Toyota models and after the demand by NHTSA, the
company recalled the vehicles.
The actual issue came up later when the company conducted the investigation with the pedal
mechanism of the cars. The company found that the gas pedal mechanism was the problem and
whether someone used floor mat or not, stickiness would not go. The length of the gas pedal was
longer than usual and the space was also less between the pedal and floor. The company recalled
above 8.5 million vehicles after the continuous complaints of vehicles getting out of control
when pushed beyond 65 mph.
The company is huge and the brand value of the company is larger than its size. Therefore, it was
mandatory that it must save its reputation else it might impact the brand value and future vehicle
sale.

TOYOTA QUALITY MANAGEMENT 2
The recall of the Toyota cars grabbed huge media and people attention (Haq, 2010). The
company had to suspend sale of eight models and recalls were made from China and Europe.
The initial negative impact on the reputation of the company was handled effectively by the
already existing brand value. However, the subsequent challenges started to strain the reputation
of the company in the eyes of the public, customers, and the government. This incident saw the
drop in company’s sale by 16% in the first month of 2010 and 11.6% in the second year. The
industry average downfall for that period was 0.23% (Quelch et al, 2010). The identified solution
was the installation of precision cut bars to reduce the friction that was eventually making the
pedal stick (Griffin, 2011). The company tried to regain the same reputation through various
advertisements focused towards safety and robust model designs withstanding all impacts.
The lessons that can be learned from the case are that quality assessment should always be a
mandatory aspect of the organizations and the company must follow what has been placed in the
system. The failure seems to be the result of improper focus on the quality measures assigned for
the production (Jones, 2010). The reason for failed focus can be too much confidence in quality.
Effective root cause analysis procedure should be there to find out any issues in advance. The
data sharing mechanisms that can trace the quality challenges should have been there.

TOYOTA QUALITY MANAGEMENT 3
References
Griffin, K. (2010). Final Plans for Toyota Recall Announced, retrieved on September 26, 2016,
from about.com http://usedcars.about.com/od/avoidingproblems/a/ToyotaRecallAnswers.htm
Haq, k. (2010). "Toyota recall update: dealers face full lots, anxious customers". The Christian
Science Monitor. Retrieved on September 26, 2016.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0129/Toyota-recall-update-dealers-face-full-lots-anxious-
customers
Jones, Jeffrey M. (2010). Americans, Toyota Owners Still Confident in Toyota Vehicles. USA
Today/Gallup poll. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/126236/americanstoyota-owners-
confident-toyota-vehicles.aspx. Accessed April 27, 2010.
Liker, Jeffrey. (2004). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest
Manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill