Not to Worry. Recent Quality Problems at Toyota are Opportunities for Learning, Isenberg School Professor Insists
Thu., May 29, 2008
For Toyota, public revelations last year about lapses in quality have been extraordinary, admits Isenberg School operations management professor Alan Robinson. “But I am confident that the company is moving decisively to fix those problems. If it were any other company, I might worry, but for five decades Toyota has demonstrated a deep commitment to a culture of problem solving and the application of systems thinking in its own continuous improvement (kaizen).”
Eighteen years ago, Professor Robinson authored Modern Approaches to Manufacturing Improvement: The Shingo Approach (Productivity Press), in concert with Shigeo Shingo, the intellectual godfather of the Toyota production system. He has done consulting at one Toyota plant and studied Toyota facilities in six countries. More recently, Robinson has focused on idea generation, dissemination, and implementation in organizations through two award-winning books: Corporate Creativity (Berrett-Koehler) and Ideas Are Free (Berrett-Koehler).
In October 2007, Consumer Reports magazine noted that it would no longer give Toyota’s cars and trucks its customary automatic status of recommended. The magazine’s demotion of three models—the Camry V6, the Lexus GS all-wheel drive variant, and the Tundra pick-up—from its recommended list followed several years of uncharacteristic recalls by the auto manufacturer.
“Quality missteps at Toyota have a close connection with the firm’s push to meet growing demand for its vehicles and to become the world’s biggest automaker,” emphasizes Robinson. (Toyota first achieved a measure of that distinction in the first quarter of 2007 when its sales passed GM’s.) In its rush to expand, Toyota overtaxed its supply of Japanese master engineers, i.e., its sensei, who transmit the Toyota manufacturing system and the “Toyota Way” itself. And, according to the Economist, it also found itself in heated competition with other auto firms for first-rate engineers, who are critical to the exhaustive testing and last-minute redesign work that contribute to product quality.
“But Toyota views shortcomings like these as learning experiences and problems to be solved,” observes Robinson. “Isenberg School students who participated in field trips with me at Toyota’s factory outside Toronto a decade ago saw first-hand how the auto maker uses a predominantly bottom-up process that empowers employees to improve quality wherever the work gets done. Our students also saw how Toyota’s highly structured quality improvement system removed bureaucracy from the equation—evaluation and implementation of quality improvements moved swiftly through the organization.”
The Toyota quality system, notes Robinson, will do its job effectively as long as it is not overtaxed by uncontrolled growth. That was a theme in Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe’s recent public apologies for the auto recalls and his pledge that his firm’s further expansion would go hand-in-hand with a renewed commitment to quality. “One of the things they've done is slowed down some of the development of future models in order to make sure that vehicles are not rushed, observed New York Times automobile industry reporter Micheline Maynard in an email.. “The next generation Prius, for example, will be a few months late because Toyota does not want it to be compromised.”
New Studies on the Horizon. During the coming academic year, two new books by Professor Robinson will dissect idea systems among an international cast of companies and nonbusiness organizations. The first book will examine idea systems and quality practices in forty Swedish business and nonbusiness organizations. “Swedish firms have a much-deserved reputation for encouraging and implementing ideas,” Robinson remarks. “In the book, Dean Schroeder, Louise Oestberg ’99 MBA, and I flesh out and explain their best practices.” Robinson’s second book, also coauthored with Dean Schroeder, is an international study of idea systems in firms that builds on the authors’ previous work in Ideas Are Free. Using metrics inspired by the previous book, the authors dissect successful and unsuccessful practices and systems. “Like Toyota, the more successful firms in our surveys are organizations of problem solvers,” underscores Robinson. “Every employee is intrinsically motivated to help the organization learn, to help it improve.”