Recently Toyota recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles because of quality issue. In the past, Toyota was always the model of car manufacturing industry. What happened to Toyota? Something wrong in the supply chain? What is your opinion?
In below link, Sean Murphy indicated a very interesting point that the pedal problem has been discovered in 2003 but Toyota ignored it.
"Toyota dropped the ball when it came to analyzing reports of problems in the past, reports that might have helped the company avoid such a dangerous and costly issue."
In the end of the article, Murphy also implied that the "lean" operation still has its own challenge and not so perfect.
"As to how Toyota, a company with a supply chain philosophy so well-respected it has introduced the term "lean" into the corporate lexicon, could make such mistakes"
Below article indicated that Toyota had to shut down the production in north America because of this quality issue. In addition, another topic was that the part was single source in the north America and the author mentioned that there were some problems in Toyota when qualifying suppliers and the wedge between Toyota and its suppliers on cost issue.
Toyota is a very hot topic nowadays, well done Rad to initiate the discussion. The two successive recall to fix sticking gas-pedal in about 8,000,000 cars in different models and break problem in Prius (some 500,000), clearly reflect the importance of early identification of quality problems. We will discuss more on this during our lecture on quality management. Once a fault is identified by customers, specially if it has some safety implications (which is the case with both recalls by Toyota) the outcome will be disasterous: massive cost to repair, shattered image, lost sale, etc.
You have made good reference to other topics of OM as well: supplier selection, single vs. multi-sourcing and lean operation. I hope others step in and enrich this forum:)
Rad like you rightly said, it is amazing that Toyota could be involved in this type of problem especially with their acclaimed lean production system which integrates quality management at all levels and aims at achieving zero error in their production. The complexity of their production system which involves suppliers of key components calls for better monitoring of their suppliers. As a result I believe that supplier relationship management also plays a major role in ensuring the quality in their system. Another factor that plays a major role in quality management is employee satisfaction and motivation. If they are highly motivated, the human error factor can be reduced to the minimum. This can be achieved with the right kind of leadership to drive the entire quality management system.
Finally continuous improvement in their processes may have enabled them identify this error earlier and stop the production of faulty cars. Could it be that Toyota has become slack in this area?
References: Dahlgaard, J.J and Dahlgaard-Park, S.M (2006) "Lean production, six sigma quality, TQM and company culture" The TQM Magazine 18(3) pp. 263-281
Sonderquist, K and Motwani, J (1999) "Quality Issues in Lean Production Implementation: A Case Study of a French Automotive Supplier" Total Quality Management 10(8)pp. 1107-1122
After the break out of Toyota's quality issue, the following question for Toyota is how to deal with this crisis. Before that, one blogger Ann proposed some interesting views about Toyota. She introduced readers one question: what Toyota has?
"While Japanese competitor Honda is known for its engineering expertise, and competitors like BMW are known for their stylish design, Toyota's reputation has been based almost solely on the quality of its vehicles."
Indeed Toyota is known as its unbroken quality control system and in the past years there was seldom big defect reported. However, Kevin highlighted an interesting topic: Toyota has no risk management in its supply chain. Why? One reason is that because of the concept of lean manufacturing, Toyota reduced the numbers of suppliers in order to cut management overhead and this may cause one situation which is too many single sources in raw material supply. Another reason is that Toyota also believed that all suppliers should execute TQM as it did, which means no defect should flow out from factory. Both factors may lead Toyota to ignore risk management in supply chain.
Finally, Ann also raised a topic which is "how lean manufacturing helps Toyota in this recall crisis?" I think it is a good thinking point for operations management.
Kevin Cornish comment: http://forums.industryweek.com/showthread.php?t=14131&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IWCompleteForum+(IndustryWeek+Forums)
In below link, Sean Murphy indicated a very interesting point that the pedal problem has been discovered in 2003 but Toyota ignored it.
ReplyDelete"Toyota dropped the ball when it came to analyzing reports of problems in the past, reports that might have helped the company avoid such a dangerous and costly issue."
In the end of the article, Murphy also implied that the "lean" operation still has its own challenge and not so perfect.
"As to how Toyota, a company with a supply chain philosophy so well-respected it has introduced the term "lean" into the corporate lexicon, could make such mistakes"
http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/447273-Supply_chain_Analysts_weigh_in_on_Toyota_recall.php
However, another article stated that this problem can not be foreseen because the system is complex.
http://www.designnews.com/article/446480-Toyota_s_Problem_Was_Unforeseeable.php
Below article indicated that Toyota had to shut down the production in north America because of this quality issue. In addition, another topic was that the part was single source in the north America and the author mentioned that there were some problems in Toyota when qualifying suppliers and the wedge between Toyota and its suppliers on cost issue.
http://www.purchasing.com/article/446283-Toyota_quality_concerns_shut_down_North_American_production.php
Toyota is a very hot topic nowadays, well done Rad to initiate the discussion. The two successive recall to fix sticking gas-pedal in about 8,000,000 cars in different models and break problem in Prius (some 500,000), clearly reflect the importance of early identification of quality problems. We will discuss more on this during our lecture on quality management. Once a fault is identified by customers, specially if it has some safety implications (which is the case with both recalls by Toyota) the outcome will be disasterous: massive cost to repair, shattered image, lost sale, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou have made good reference to other topics of OM as well: supplier selection, single vs. multi-sourcing and lean operation. I hope others step in and enrich this forum:)
Rad like you rightly said, it is amazing that Toyota could be involved in this type of problem especially with their acclaimed lean production system which integrates quality management at all levels and aims at achieving zero error in their production. The complexity of their production system which involves suppliers of key components calls for better monitoring of their suppliers. As a result I believe that supplier relationship management also plays a major role in ensuring the quality in their system. Another factor that plays a major role in quality management is employee satisfaction and motivation. If they are highly motivated, the human error factor can be reduced to the minimum. This can be achieved with the right kind of leadership to drive the entire quality management system.
ReplyDeleteFinally continuous improvement in their processes may have enabled them identify this error earlier and stop the production of faulty cars. Could it be that Toyota has become slack in this area?
References:
Dahlgaard, J.J and Dahlgaard-Park, S.M (2006) "Lean production, six sigma quality, TQM and company culture" The TQM Magazine 18(3) pp. 263-281
Sonderquist, K and Motwani, J (1999) "Quality Issues in Lean Production Implementation: A Case Study of a French Automotive Supplier" Total Quality Management 10(8)pp. 1107-1122
Continuing on Toyota recall issue.
ReplyDeleteAfter the break out of Toyota's quality issue, the following question for Toyota is how to deal with this crisis. Before that, one blogger Ann proposed some interesting views about Toyota. She introduced readers one question: what Toyota has?
"While Japanese competitor Honda is known for its engineering
expertise, and competitors like BMW are known for their stylish
design, Toyota's reputation has been based almost solely on the
quality of its vehicles."
Indeed Toyota is known as its unbroken quality control system and in the past years there was seldom big defect reported. However, Kevin highlighted an interesting topic: Toyota has no risk management in its supply chain. Why? One reason is that because of the concept of lean manufacturing, Toyota reduced the numbers of suppliers in order to cut management overhead and this may cause one situation which is too many single sources in raw material supply. Another reason is that Toyota also believed that all suppliers should execute TQM as it did, which means no defect should flow out from factory. Both factors may lead Toyota to ignore risk management in supply chain.
Finally, Ann also raised a topic which is "how lean manufacturing helps Toyota in this recall crisis?" I think it is a good thinking point for operations management.
Ann's blog:
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/did-lean-manufacturing-contribute-to-toyota-recall/?cs=39091
Kevin Cornish comment:
http://forums.industryweek.com/showthread.php?t=14131&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IWCompleteForum+(IndustryWeek+Forums)