TOYOTA’S RECOVERY PLAN HINGES ON CRITICAL ISO 9001 QUALITY PRINCIPLE (DEMO)
The years before 2013 have been harsh to Toyota. The economic recession of 2007 and the Tohoku Earthquake four years later have practically pulled this Japanese car brand down in sales. After establishing a strong foothold once again in 2013, President Akio Toyoda says his company is ready to take the offensive.
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“President Akio Toyoda says Toyota Motor Corp. is finally ready to go on the offensive again, after being hobbled in recent years by such crises as the global financial meltdown following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, unintended acceleration recalls and Japan’s killer earthquake.”
“Toyota is on the cusp of selling 10 million vehicles a year, which would make it the first carmaker to achieve that milestone, he says.”
Much to the car market’s surprise, however, sales are hardly Toyoda’s priority in his game plan. He’s going for the quality-over-quantity approach, even if Toyota can’t sell as many cars.
“President Akio Toyoda says Toyota Motor Corp. is finally ready to go on the offensive again, after being hobbled in recent years by such crises as the global financial meltdown following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, unintended acceleration recalls and Japan’s killer earthquake.”
“Toyota is on the cusp of selling 10 million vehicles a year, which would make it the first carmaker to achieve that milestone, he says.”
Much to the car market’s surprise, however, sales are hardly Toyoda’s priority in his game plan. He’s going for the quality-over-quantity approach, even if Toyota can’t sell as many cars.
“But raw volume is not his goal. Instead, it will be a byproduct of what Toyoda says is a back-to-basics refocus on human resource development, better product and innovative manufacturing.”Standards experts tout Toyoda’s approach to business as a prime example of a key principle in quality management. The carmaker compares it to the concept of “kaizen,” but ISO 9001 standard directly calls it “continual improvement.” Since the principle’s inception during World War II, Toyota has stayed faithful to their form of continual improvement and remains to do so to this day. Much like the kaizen philosophy, continual improvement puts stress on constant development of existing products and services. This can be achieved by constantly honing workers’ skills to be able to maintain the rate of improvement and react decisively to sudden problems the moment they appear. To further contextualize, Toyoda knows the Scion has been on a slump since last year. Despite the supposed competitive price of the luxury car arm, it still loses to more expensive cars, because it just doesn’t spark the same interest as the cars do. Nevertheless, Toyoda pointed out that he would continue producing and improving the Scion, even with limited resources.
“We will continue with Scion. But Toyota has limited resources. There are needs [that Toyota faces] on the part of Scion, environmentally friendly cars, Lexus, for trucks.”Continual improvement means there’s no end to the process. In the end, this should turn out favorable to manufacturers all over as consumers’ needs grow and evolve; the quality of products and services must be able to keep up with this. Toyoda looks long into the future of his car company with his kaizen initiative, a critical element in receiving ISO 9001 certification from services like International Standards Authority. (Article information from “Toyota’s new offensive’s goal: Improvement, not sheer volume,” Automotive News, November 11, 2013)