Capt. Kaizen – no one in these posts has stated that Toyota is number one in quality. Maybe number one in corporate sales, or certain market shares. Also, recall that for the past few years – every auto maker has had record recalls; Ford, GM, DC, Honda, Toyota – nearly all have been affected. For example, the Ford Focus (current generation) has been recalled multiple times (three, maybe four) for the same defective fuel pumps! The Ford F-150 (1999-2003) models that eject spark plugs due to defective design cylinder heads. By the way, even if occurring during the 3 yr. / 36k warranty – Ford was denying responsibility! Now’s that action sure to retain customers!
The point is that with Toyota there are several a fundamental differences and methods of doing business; focus on long-term quality and not forsaking the customer when defect issues arise, respect for the employee; identifying and eliminating waste by harnessing ideas of the employees on the factory floor (improved communications / relations = no labor unions necessary), employing mistake-proofing to an average of eight (8) per workstation to eliminate defects at the source, and on and on. Many of the so-called quality ‘flavor-of-the-month’ practices at the domestic automakers; TPM, QFD, lean, waste reduction – are the everyday methods of doing business at the Toyota, Honda, Nissan factories. It’s ingrained into the business culture to make incremental improvements at each level, every day. This philosophy and self-auditing approach takes places everywhere; design, sales, order entry, purchasing, HR, production – every aspect of the company is scrutinized under a common magnification.
At most US companies we tend to make a six-sigma project out of it – package it using Power Point, whoop-it-up and high-five each other – like it’s something extraordinary.
Like I said – there’s a fundamental difference in the way of conducting business……
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