Page 206 - Toyota Under Fire

RESPONSE AND THE ROAD TO RECOVER Y

Improvements in Listening to Customers

Clearly the existing process of getting information from deal-
ers’ service technicians, calls from proactive customers, and the
NHTSA complaints database was not sufficient. To start gather-
ing these data firsthand and interacting with customers on their
complaints and concerns, Steve St. Angelo’s North American
Quality Task Force created SMART (Swift Market Analysis Re-
sponse Teams). These groups of engineers and specially trained
technicians were set up around the country to go onsite, with
a goal of doing so within 24 hours, to inspect a vehicle and in-
terview any customer who reported unintended acceleration.
By August 2010, more than 4,000 vehicles had been examined
through the SMART process.* These direct customer contact
points didn’t find any electronics issues or other unknown engi-
neering issues, but they did reveal how large the chasm was be-
tween customers’ perceptions of their vehicles’ behavior and the
Toyota engineers’ perspective. The SMART inspections quickly
found a pattern of complaints, all related to aspects of vehicle
operation that customers simply didn’t understand and thought
were indications of sudden unintended acceleration, including
• Cold start idle-up. An increase in engine idle speed
normally occurs just after a cold start on the first drive
of the day.

• Catalytic converter protection. On some models with
manual transmissions, the engine control computer
may keep the engine rpm above idle as the driver shifts

* Steve St. Angelo, speech at Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Manage-
ment Briefing Seminars, Traverse City, Michigan, August 4, 2010.

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