Toyota Acceleration Problems - Case Study Example

Toyota Acceleration Problems: Case Analysis Student’s Name Institution Toyota Acceleration Problems: Case Analysis Company Background and Problem Analysis Established in 1937 in Toyota, Aichi Japan, Toyota is the world’s largest automaker. The company, over a long period, has enjoyed immense success in production of safe, reliable and high quality vehicles that has, in turn, lots of customers (Feng, 2010). Nowadays, the company has expanded to 27 countries where it enjoys about53 production sites. Some of the vehicle brands from this company include; Lexus, Yaris and Corolla (Feng, 2010). As a pioneer of lean production techniques, the company has transformed into a production giant that focus on integrating modern technology into producing safe vehicles and at affordable prices (Feng, 2010). On the contrary, this leading position has been changed since late 2009 where series of fatal crash in Toyota brands triggered intense recall exercise that brought forth crisis misery. It is estimated that about 9 million vehicles were recalled globally across a numerous range in the company’s vehicle brand. This is due to the “unintended acceleration problems” noticed on these vehicles. It should be ascertained that the poor quality and safety complaints mainly emerged from North American consumers (Feng, 2010). The aforementioned problems prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration within North America. The Toyota American Sales company associated the problem with their Lexus brand to an incompatible floor mat that interfered greatly with the acceleration pedal (Feng, 2010). Reasons behind the Major Acceleration Problems It is ascertained that the company’s traditional priorities were overruled in order to pursue opportunities for faster growth within the ever growing global vehicle markets. Such traditional priorities as safety and quality were replaced with growth strategies that, in turn had an impending effect on the organization’s safety priorities (Mezey et al, 2013). It is important to note that the paradigm shift adopted by Toyota that drove its priorities away from quality to quantity revealed an impending issues with its internal decision-making processes. The blame on the production software was used to safeguard the interests of the company rather than ensure customer’s safety first. The problem attributed to unintended acceleration goes back to 2002 when the company introduced electronic throttle control system (Mezey et al, 2013). At that time, the US NHTSA made intensive investigations where a smaller number of Toyota brands were recalled. The company made sure that the problem was not revealed to the public limelight as it engaged in intense blame games with US suppliers (Mezey et al, 2013). Poor decision making skills were evident from the Toyota President -Aki Toyoda, in matters regarding to informing the consumers about the issues at hand. This loop in communication platform laid a formidable platform for media propaganda that, in turn, tarnished the image and reputation of the company further (Mezey et al, 2013). It is ascertained that the decision making capacities were only made from the Company’s headquarters in Japan. The North America group did not have the power to order for recalls thus leading to poor professionalism matters (Mezey et al, 2013). It is argued that the slowness with which the decisions were made to recall the vehicles resulted mainly from the different cultures of the US and Japan people. It is postulated that while decision making process takes a shorter span within the United States of America, Japanese firms take a longer period due to their organizational cultural setting (Mezey et al, 2013). Japanese always seek for reaching consensus for all actions before a whole decision is made. Taking time to reach a consensus before an action can be made depicts humility and modesty within the Japanese organizational culture (Mezey et al, 2013). The lack of formidable communication platform useful for dealings between Toyota and US authorities led to the opening of at least 8 separate investigations. Personal petitions that also affected the image and reputation of the firm were postulated even further with the death of Mark Saylor and his family (Mezey et al, 2013). He owned Lexus ES350 that experienced unintended acceleration problems despite the fact that the vehicle had been fitted with advanced floor mats. It should be understood that the Company did not only incur costs in the recall exercise but was also forced to devise newer technological techniques (Mezey et al, 2013). For instance, it was forced to design newer trim panels that cost lots of money and other resources (Mezey et al, 2013). The company’s public relations were handled poorly as was expected from such a reputable automaker company. It engaged in confusing public statements that even made the situation worse as more customers lost confidence with the organization (Mezey et al, 2013). Several customers were wary of the fact that the problem was even more than poorly fitted floor mats. This is due to the fact that despite removing the mats, they still experienced unintended acceleration issues (Mezey et al, 2013). Here’s How to Avoid This Type of Shortcoming In The Future It is important to mention that the major cause of the company experiencing negative publicities as well as loss of substantial number of loyal customers within North America resulted from its safety deafness approach (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). For instance, Toyota could have eliminated possible propaganda by sidestepping the numerous flaks put forward by being more alert on the charges leveled against it in the first place. This could have prompted the organization to act quicker and positively towards the increasing tattered image. On the contrary, the problem was also attributed to the numerous internal organizational issues. For instance, it is understood that each of the vehicle model is assigned to the different Shusa or chief engineers (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). These engineers are tasked with the responsibility of defining the vehicle’s distinctive market, their creation and also, hitting their targets in respect to such aspects as quality, performance and costs of manufacture. They are based in the company’s headquarters where intense efforts are made to isolate them from market information. Using this engineers, Toyota could have granted them access to market information in order to allow them compare their skills with others within the market (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). For instance, Volvo engineers recently came up with a 1.7 terabyte data warehouse that could have proved invaluable to the Shusas in respect to understanding diagnostics problems of vehicles. The aforementioned technology is positioned on-board for each of the Volvo vehicles thus informing the organization cases of impeding issues (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). Accordingly, the chief engineers could have devised a customized but similar technology that could have been used to match warranty data to diagnostics data thereby reducing chances of more accidents (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). Subsequently, the organization, in a bid to effectively disseminate information, should have embraced social media platforms (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). Apart from large data-warehouses, the organization should have developed and maintained social media communication platform in order to ascertain that which is happening in the market place. For instance, the computer manufacturer Dell uses this platform to identify possible problems from customers firsthand where solutions are offered. Thus, Toyota on the other hand, should devise a social media platform where arising problems are identified and their resolutions offered before they can reach the wider market (Manufacturing Safety Magazine, 2010). From the above analysis, it can be ascertained that Toyota did little to catapult the resolution models for the unintended acceleration problems. The failure of the company’s management to address the issue in the first instance caused uproar from both government and private sectors. This, in turn, led to loss of lives and numerous petitions on the part of the company. However, the company can prevent this issue in the future by allowing their chief engineers access to full market information and also, adopting a social media platform where problems are solved in time basis. References Feng, Y. (2010). Toyota crisis: Management ignorance? - A Swedish case of consumer’s perceptions. Master’s Dissertation in Management of Innovation and Business Development, 15 ECTS. Manufacturing Safety Magazine. (2010). Learning from failure. Engineering & Technology, Retrieved December 6, 2013 from www.theiet.org/magazine. Mezey, A et al. (2013). Toyota Inc: A case study in communicating bad news.USC Marshall-School of Business, Center for Management Communication. Read More