Page 183 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

Everyone at Toyota knows that True North, by definition an
ideal, is never really achievable. No matter how many times a
process is improved or how many problems are solved, there will
always be the opportunity for further improvement. The role of
leaders throughout the company is to constantly keep people’s
energy focused on continuous improvement rather than to be-
come satisfied and complacent over past achievements.
During the crisis, the more than 140,000 employees at Toy-
ota and in Toyota dealerships in the United States felt that they
were being unfairly attacked. In such situations, it’s natural for
people to become defensive and start directing their energy out-
ward, attacking and defending. That instinctual reaction is poi-
sonous to both the Toyota Way and continuous improvement
efforts. Allowing such an outward direction of energy to take
hold would have undermined the company’s philosophy of us-
ing problems to challenge everyone to improve. For example, the
just-in-time approach to parts delivery isn’t just about cutting in-
ventory costs; it’s about making problems immediately apparent
so that they can be addressed.
Akio Toyoda’s repeated public apologies, his admissions that the
company did not live up to its standards (it never has lived up to
the standard of True North, and doing so would be impossible),
and his commitments to looking inward and finding ways to
improve quality were all devices to encourage the entire company
to hold to the Toyota Way principle of continuous improvement.
In this regard, the truth or falsity of any of the allegations was
irrelevant. Toyota could improve its quality and its operations.
Toyota needed to improve its service to customers. Toyota needed
to become a more responsive and adaptable company. In fact, in
the hypercompetitive environment of the automotive industry, it
was—and is—critical to the company’s future that it improve in

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