Page 173 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

David Strickland, head of NHTSA, publicly praised Toyota for
this quick reaction.* St. Angelo explained the new philosophy of
recalls in terms of regaining customer trust: “We need to do that
to make sure we’ve taken every rock, every stone, looked under-
neath, and we can look ourselves in the face and say, ‘Look, we’ve
done what our customers expect when it comes to safety.’”
In another highly visible but more global step, Toyoda and
the board created a “Special Committee for Global Quality.”
The committee was made up of the new chief quality officers
and a group of executives leading business operations, and was
chaired by Akio Toyoda. In its first meeting on March 30, 2010,
the committee announced a six-point plan:
1. Improve the quality inspection process.
2. Enhance customer research by establishing customer
information research offices in each region to collect
information faster.
3. Establish an “automotive center of quality excellence”
in key regions to further develop quality professionals.
4. Engage support from outside experts by creating an
external quality review panel.
5. Increase communication with regional authorities.

6. Improve regional autonomy, listen carefully to each and
every customer, and improve quality based on that.
In addition to this internal committee, an external panel
made up of recognized quality experts from outside Toyota was
established. The charge to the external committee was to review

* Hiroko Tabuchi and Micheline Maynard, “U.S. Sees a Change of Attitude
at Toyota,” May 10, 2010; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/business/
global/11toyota.html.

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