A Simple Tool for a Complex Problem - Solving Toyota's Quality Problems
by Norman Bodek
President of PCS Inc. and the author of How to Do Kaizen,
and Jeremy Green, PhD
I have long-admired and respected Toyota. I have been to their factories, published and written books and articles about their revolutionary production system r, known many of their brilliant people, and taught their methods to thousands of students. Like many of Toyota's admirers, I was shocked and saddened by their disastrous unintended acceleration problems and its tragic results. My students and friends have continued to ask me, "How could Toyota have let this happen?" Where did the world's quality leader go wrong and how can Toyota and YOU ensure that problems like this will not manifest into millions of recalls - billions of dollars of losses?
After studying the recent problems at Toyota, I haveeached this conclusion: Had the tools of the Toyota Production System been extended from the factory floor worker to every employee who makes contact with the customer, Toyota could have dramatically reduced the resulting financial impact and human tragedy. This article is the first in a series to address this idea in some detail.
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