Toyota Recall – Time to Revisit the Fabled Toyota Production System

Yesterday, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. announced that will conduct a voluntary safety recall of an estimated 1.1.3 million Toyota Corrolla and Corolla Matrix with model years ranging from 2005 to 2008.  The recall is to address some Engine Control Modules that have been improperly manufactured.

Federal safety regulators, this week, began an engineering analysis of stalling in Corolla and Matrix cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had received 26 complaints of vehicles stalling when it opened a preliminary evaluation last November. It reported 163 additional complaints when it opened the engineering analysis.

Toyota said there were three unconfirmed accidents alleged to be related to this current, Engine Control Modul, issue, one of which might have resulted in a minor injury.

Toyota has been plagued by a rash of quality problems involving faulty gas pedals, floor mats, brakes, electronic stability control systems, steering systems and other defects. Now the engine control units are added to the list.

Toyota has recalled about 10 million worldwide in the last year.   Quality issues have hurt the automaker’s reputation for reliability and dependability, and affected its sales position. Through the first seven months of this year, Toyota’s U.S. market share dropped to 15.2% from 16.3%, putting it in third place in the U.S. auto market behind General Motors and Ford Motor Company.

To endure massive, and highly publicized, quality issues is doubly damaging, as Toyota is the creator of the famed Toyota Production System (TPS) from which Lean Manufacturing was derived.  Lean Manufacturing is broadly taught and followed as a methodology for driving quality issues and cost out of the manufacturing process.  TPS has a goal to “build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right from the first.”

While the Toyota brand may yet escape damage from this latest recall, it would be wise for Toyota to revisit TPS as a major point of emphasis, and to prove it by demonstrating a strong track record of quality going forward.