Toyota's announcement of the massive recall and assembly plant shut down is the most dramatic action ever taken by an auto manufacturer. It seems that Toyota's attempts for a "field" fix just isn't working. Initial action was to remove the driver's floor mat and then have the accelerator pedal modified by trimming the bottom edge of the pedal. It now seems that the complete "arm" and pedal must be redesigned for a confident fix. The problem is that the supplier plant in Elkart, Indiana will have their hands full producing millions of the redesigned part. No manufacturer ever wants to have an assembly line idled for even an hour let alone days or weeks. The ripple effect of this action will be devastating not only to the assembly worker but right down to the dealerships which will not only have to stop doing business, but will also have to have a solid plan to communicate with a hoard of concerned and angry clients. Toyota wants the fix done properly and seems to be committed to doing it the right way.
Toyota has been the poster boy of the renowned Asian quality. The domestics have scratched their heads for decades trying to emulate the quality of Toyota and Honda. It will be interesting to see how deeply this accelerator problem will tarnish the Toyota's quality reputation. The media will run hard with this one and Toyota will try mightily to control the damage. If they are perceived as "doing the right thing" and going above and beyond to correct the problem, the damage might be temporary. If the public thinks that they dragged their feet and tried to shrug off the matter as a crumpled floor mat, then a long term drop in Toyota sales will be at hand. Does anyone remember the Audi sudden acceleration problem? It hurt their reputation for over 15 years! The world's number one auto maker is going to take a big hit on this one. It will be interesting to find out just what went wrong with the design of a very simple part. Correcting the problem will take many months compounding the daily damage done to Toyota's quality reputation.
It would certainly be interesting to listen in on "war room" at Toyota! I'm sure that they want this nightmare to go away. The US motoring public does not react well to recalls! Time will tell!
1 comment:
Did their quality problem have anything to do with US production workers or US suppliers. Ask GM, Ford, Chrysler.......Is it possible that the US based suppliers and workers are part of the issue and Toyota has become a victim of quality deterioration by creating US jobs and using US suppliers. Does domestic assembly and domestic parts sources spell RECALLS???????????????????????
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