Page 22 - Toyota Under Fire

PREF ACE

and quality data were published without even mentioning that
they were from the United States only. The wake-up call for Toy-
ota was that each region, and even each country, is different, and
that the local social and political context has to be considered in
every decision. Having all the most important decisions made
in Japan by Japanese engineers and executives who were isolated
from the gemba (where the issues were really happening) was dis-
covered to be a critical weakness for this global company, and
there was a great deal to be done to listen to customers in every
country and to give team members who were locally at the gemba
more authority.
That’s the story we’ve set out to tell here: how Toyota responded
to being under fire, with a primary focus on the epicenter—
the United States. This book is the culmination of more than two
years of investigation starting in the midst of the global recession,
including visits to Toyota plants and offices across the United
States and Japan and interviews with President Akio Toyoda,
board members, and senior executives in both locales, as well as
Toyota team members, dealers, and independent experts on the
automotive industry. I spent several days in each of the plants
that were hit hardest during the depth of the recession, inter-
viewing team members and getting a tour through their kaizen
(improvement) activities. I observed a Camry being tested for
sensitivity to electromagnetic interference in Japan. I watched as
team members fielded customer questions in Toyota’s call center
in Torrance, California. I previewed training materials for a new
quality professional training program.
We do not claim to be technical experts on sudden unin-
tended acceleration or to know the details of all the discussions
between Toyota and the government over recalls, but we are con-
fident in our understanding at a big picture level and have done

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