Page 248 - Toyota Under Fire

LESSONS

If respect for people is at the foundation of continuous im-
provement, then we could also say that mutual trust is the foun-
dation for respect for people. Perhaps the greatest casualty of the
recall crisis was a breakdown in the customer trust that Toyota has
taken decades to build up—not so much among the core of loyal
customers, but among those who were on the fence and those
who knew little about Toyota but were potential Toyota loyal-
ists. James Wiseman, who in the midst of the crisis was named as
the group vice president for communications at TMA to oversee
all communications in North America, is convinced that Toyota
was too risk-averse in the early stages of the crisis and should have
done more to clearly explain technical issues, speak directly to
customers, and explain Toyota’s efforts to resolve problems and
improve, taking some personal responsibility for this: “Generally
I wish we had been more proactive, especially on TV, to speak for
our company and all our employees and partners in America. We
should have been more visible, including me.”
When Toyota teaches Toyota Business Practices (TBP), it is
a natural tendency for the student to answer one of the whys
by blaming some factor or department that is outside his or her
control. Perhaps in solving a quality problem in assembly, the
answer to the third why is, “Engineering designed the car so it is
difficult to assemble.” In such a case, the coach might say: “You
may be correct that the engineer could have done a better job of
designing for ease of assembly, but we cannot change that right
now. How can we answer the next why in a way that will allow
us to take positive action?” Then the student might answer the
next why as: “We in assembly did not exert our influence to par-
ticipate in the design process early enough to help the engineers
design for assembly,” or, “Our training in assembly is not good
enough to allow us to assemble difficult designs without defects.”

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