Supervisory skills in Toyota rehabilitation and production

¶ … Toyota Corporation was once one of the most respected companies in the world, famed more for its quality than its low prices. However, it has been subjected to a great deal of criticism because of the number of recalls the company has had to issue, regarding safety issues with its vehicles. This requires a new shift in focus for the company to reverse the trend in its plummeting sales. Toyota must rehabilitate its reputation and also improve the actual quality of its production facilities. This requires greater cooperation between the supervisors of the company as well as a number of structural changes for the organization. Greater cooperation is needed between quality control supervision and the marketing and advertising function to ensure that quality remains a selling point for Toyota now and in the future. This paper offers both long and short-term solutions for the issues facing the company.

Research paper: Supervisory skills and rehabilitating Toyota

Toyota's reputation as a company is fundamentally founded on quality; yet, in recent years a series of recalls have resulted in great damage to its once internationally-respected brand. Its latest recall involves 6.4 million vehicles which have been flagged for five potentially life-threatening hazards. "The problems involve seat adjustments, steering columns, and windshield wiper motors on 27 Toyota models dating back to at least 2005" (Stock 2014). While all of its competitors in the industry have likewise had to issue recalls, Toyota has branded itself not on low prices but on a philosophy of continuous improvement. Moreover, this is Toyota's 8th major recall since 2005 and "the recall number equals almost two of every three vehicles the company made last year" (Stock 2014). This indicates a serious quality control problem and not surprisingly, morale at the company has plummeted. Toyota's mission in the near and far future is clear: it must 1. Improve its actual quality control and 2. Rebuild its reputation. To do so, Toyota's management must generate dialogue between its marketing and communication teams and quality control department to create a seamless strategy of improving quality control and communicating this to customers.

Recalls can have a very damaging impact upon brand integrity. Before the recalls, Toyota was the automotive industry's leader in terms of customer trust. "After the recalls, its score plummeted to near the bottom of the list at 139" (Davis 2012). To rebound, Toyota must return to its quality-focused roots. A recent safety panel blamed overly centralized management and a failure of different component teams to communicate with one another as the source of Toyota's woes. It was suggested to Toyota that "Toyota needs to give its North American operations more independence and improve communication between operations in the region and in Japan…executives in Japan [must] work to fully understand the perspectives of government officials and regulators in North America in general" (Toyota quality advisory panel recommends decentralization, better communication, 2011, Automotive Fleet). It also stated that Toyota should have "expanded testing of new models to focus on potential drivability issues and distracted driving; creating a an independent 'Customer Representative Team' that would seek out information, positive and negative, about Toyota vehicles, while focusing significant effort on safety" (Toyota quality advisory panel recommends decentralization, better communication, 2011, Automotive Fleet). Toyota must create a more quality-focused, agile, and responsive organization.

First and foremost, Toyota must set both the long and the short-term goal of having no recalls. To achieve this goal requires Toyota to more carefully trouble-shoot its current vehicles for potential problems. An additional layer of quality control must be placed upon the management structure before the vehicles are released to the public. Secondly, in the long and short run Toyota must trouble-shoot for potential issues more carefully which can occur with drivers using cars under a variety of non-laboratory circumstances. In the long run it must improve vehicles to reduce such risks entirely and also to engage in continuous improvement and generate a sense of security for its customers to outpace its competitors.

As well as improving actual quality, the public must be convinced that Toyota's commitment to their safety is genuine. Our department must work more closely with Toyota's advertising and marketing to communicate what has been done to address customer concerns. It must be stressed that Toyota is turning over a 'new leaf' and the changes are made in terms of additional layers of quality control are meaningful and should set customers' minds at rest. Up to this point, Toyota's willingness to correct the recalled products has been the focus of some positive media attention but the fact is that no one really wants to drive a product that may be recalled, given the fear of driving with a potentially unsafe and undetected issue. Additionally, the hassle of returning for a fix at a dealership results in a needless waste of time for the consumer and wasted time and money for Toyota. Instead, Toyota must communicate that it is setting a new policy of zero defects with clear, concrete steps taken to achieve that goal.