Toyota Explains New Quality Efforts, New Focus on Engineering and Customers
Toyota has announced details surrounding the additional steps that it plans to take in order to improve the quality of the vehicles that it sells both in the United States and around the world. Fresh from the latest of three recent recalls involving its Lexus luxury brand (for fuel leaks, stability control issues and engine failures), and still feeling the impact of unresolved unintended acceleration problems affecting most of its models, Toyota has instituted several new policies aimed at rebuilding consumer confidence in the safety and reliability of its vehicles.
According to an article published this week in Autonews, Toyota will start by extending the standard vehicle development time for each new model from 24 to 25 months. The primary benefit of the additional four weeks will be to allow for increased scrutiny from engineers prior to a new car design hitting the open market. The car company has specifically put together a group of 100 engineers who have been charged with inspecting and testing the quality of new vehicles independently of each design team, allowing them to theoretically adopt an unbiased approach to the process. This unique engineering group will also be given the mandate of examining automobiles from a driver's perspective in order to add an extra dimension to the primarily technical testing program employed by Toyota.
The Japanese car company has also initiated a broader effort to catch safety and reliability concerns prior to a car, truck, crossover or minivan going on sale by increasing the number of engineers associated with quality inspections to 1,000. Toyota executive vice president Takeshi Uchiyamada described this 50% swell in the ranks of quality-focused engineers as an indicator that Toyota and Lexus will no longer pursue the almost exponential growth that has highlighted the previous decade of operations, but rather instead ensure that sales efforts and goals are intimately tied-in to the company's technical and engineering capabilities.
Furthering this 'engineering first' approach will be greater autonomy given to Toyota's chief engineers when it comes to evaluating the roadworthiness of new technologies and designs. A clear separation of the details of product development from the company's executive branch combined with clearer communication with suppliers (such as the corporations which built the faulty accelerator pedals and supplied the contaminated valve spring materials that have kept Toyota's name in the news) will be combined with a drive to reduce the amount of engineering outsourcing currently employed by the company.
Stepping outside of Toyota's corporate headquarters, the brand will also be establishing new field offices in North America that are specifically focused on product quality. In the fourth quarter of 2009 Toyota opened its very first Product Quality Field Office (PQFC) in New York City, and will later this month open the next PQFC in San Francisco. Five additional openings are scheduled in both Canada and the United States before the end of 2010, bringing the total number of PQFC locations to seven.
Each of the field offices, which have so far been paired with Toyota Motor Sales regional offices, will be staffed by a team of engineers that are charged with examining specific product issues. So far four office agendas have been made public, with engineering teams specifically directed to examine hybrid vehicle, cold weather and corrosion, heating and cooling and truck issues. The facilities will be under the direction of Toyota's American headquarters, located in California, which will act as a clearinghouse for consumer complaints and feedback.