Comments on: What Is Going on with Toyota

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:42:05 +0000

Good post! But I wonder if BI software would actually help Toyota to see patterns developing early? There are new strategic challenges for the global firm. These challenges include: (i) market opportunities migrating to rapidly emerging economies in the East; (ii) the long shadow of the financial crisis and the rising prominence of sovereign wealth funds; and (iii) the urgent imperative to deal with climate change and to include a larger number of stakeholders in the firm’s growth strategies. The IMD OWP 2010 devotes a session to each of these challenges.

By: Josh Nankivel

Josh Nankivel — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:12:41 +0000

One more thing I forgot to mention in the last comment… Continuing from my last statement, what upsets me is not that there was a failure; it’s that regulatory agencies had to get involved at all. My expectations of Toyota would have been their ability to take corrective action well before any regulator raised a flag.

By: Josh Nankivel

Josh Nankivel — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:09:55 +0000

Thanks Hal.

“They have to find a way to make sense of what people throughout their network are learning throughout design, production and while the product is in use. There is no alternative.”

Statistically speaking, recalls will happen though at some point regardless of how good you are.

Your last point is the one key element I see missing in the chain. What is the feedback loop from the end users? It should be direct, whether that be via technology or traditional customer complaint systems. With local law enforcement, dealerships, etc. in the way, there may be too many potential points of failure when it comes to communicating real feedback and using that to take action. Without data, BI is useless.

Excellent post Hal, thank you!

By: Jamie Flinchbaugh

Jamie Flinchbaugh — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:01:22 +0000

I agree that they didn’t chase growth as the overarching goal. I believe they generated some momentum towards it, and that momentum probably got out of hand. I think just because they were growing fast AND this happened, it’s really hard to draw the conclusion that one happened because of the other.

I have been resisting writing about the Toyota case because so little is actually know about the defect itself, and cause and effect isn’t clear. But I have been getting enough questions about it. I don’t think this changes anything about Toyota’s success. They still have dramatically fewer recalls than others. And of course no one that knows lean would say they were anything close to perfect.

I did write up some of my thoughts and lessons in observing the story on my blog here: http://jamieflinchbaugh.com/2010/02/the-fall-of-the-mighty-toyota/

Jamie Flinchbaugh

By: Bruce Panico

Bruce Panico — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:21:28 +0000

Hal, the engine will turn off.

By: Hal

Hal — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:08:51 +0000

Bruce,

I don’t think I understand the approach. What does “engine cut off” mean? Disengage the transmission? Shut off the engine? Is either a good approach. Should we wait to see the solution before we judge it.

Why it took so long is a good question. We can guess at answers, wait for the press to investigate, hear more from Toyota or (some other choice). I suspect that some poka yoke device is long overdue. Maybe it needs to be standard on all vehicles.

Thanks for commenting,
Hal

By: Bruce Panico

Bruce Panico — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:12:41 +0000

Hi Hal, it is now coming out that a computer reprograming is in the works that will trigger an engine cut off if the accelerator is causing the engine to rev and the brake pedal is being depressed at the same time (much like Volkswagen and Mercedes have). Why did this take so long to figure out?

By: Bob Corrick

Bob Corrick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:10:34 +0000

+1 for Bob Ferguson – the previews on Google or Amazon for “Managing the Unexpected” suggest that this is one for my reading list. Thank you.

By: John Leeper

John Leeper — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:17:42 +0000

Hal:
I don’t know the answer. How does Toyota or for that matter any of us, commnicate with clients to get useful feed back especially those around safety. It is about risk. There is risk to the business by not noticing a pattern of parts failures that annoy clients or customers. If there is a communication channel from the service centers to the corporation who is listening and for what? How are distinctions made between complaints that are annoying and those that are about safety. As humans we tend to hear what we are looking for and we refine the wedge of what we know that we know. I don’t know if we actually expand that or just polish a piece of it. In conversations about safety in my industry [construction], I have found that we talk about “accidents” that have occurred, stats that are “trending” up or down and that we have to change behavior in reponse to events in the past. How do we as members of organizations open ourselve up to seeing possibilities of unsafe occurences and acting on them before they occur or after they have occurred once. How do we gather the information? Who’s eyes can register the patterns? Who then has the organization act and nip things in the bud? How do you reward teams for stopping the organization from making big mistakes by seeing small patterns from small samples?
John L.

By: Margaret McIntyre

Margaret McIntyre — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:26:29 +0000

Thank you, Hal, for your thoughts on what’s going on with Toyota. I have thought of you often as I’ve heard the news reports about their problems and have been curious as to what your take was. It is sad to me that such a giant is falling. It shows the perils of being human.

By: Bruce Panico

Bruce Panico — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:59:41 +0000

Hi Hal, Toyota’s problem is not quality it is arrogance. All automobile manufacturers have design deficiencies . It is how they deal with the deficiencies that is paramount . The timeline shows that the problems with the accelerators started in 2004 the same year that Toyota switched to an electronic fly by wire accelerator. As you have stated Hal the cars of today can have a multitude of computer processors and chips that can have glitches and bugs. Why then is a new floor mat and a mechanical friction plate installed to the stem of the pedal the fix du jour ? Customers will forgive mechanical deficiencies , personal inconveniences and design failures from a car company but they won’t put up with the arrogance of deception.

By: Bob Ferguson

Bob Ferguson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:16:23 +0000

I suggest you read “Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty” by Karl E. Weick, Kathleen M. Sutcliffe. I found this book to be quite insightful. It is literally about the importance of paying attention to the details when working in the trenches, and creating the management chain to respond quickly when something bad is occurring.
Toyota is already able to do this on the manufacturing floor. Someone observes an untoward result on the shop floor is able to stop the line if necessary in order to fix the problem rather than transfer it.
The book uses several examples from very high reliability organizations. A wrench dropped on the deck of an aircraft carrier is a reason to stop the flight line.
I believe many project managers can benefit from this book.