Toyota

[Mich the Tester]

Reading this made me think 'been there, seen it and done that'.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle7058007.ece

Toyota had a reputation that was envied by most of the world. Their products were sometimes uninspiring but always damn good.

Now it turns out that quality and safety were sacrificed for quick growth. Bean counters started taking engineering decisions and engineers started taking accounting decisions.

A group of employees sent a letter to the senior management warning of troubles ahead, but their concerns were ignored.

I’m sure we’ve all seen something similar in IT. Project Managers who dress up some major test findings to make the client think things are going well. Pressure on test managers to drop the level of an issue if it’s endangering acceptance. Unrealistic development schedules set to meet a politically convenient deadline instead of a properly estimated work effort. Some of us have probably tried to raise our concerns, much like Mr Tadao Wakatsuki, who was the principle author of a memo went by employees to management at Toyota.

Now one of the world’s most succesful manufacturers has seen its reputation shot to pieces, will IT companies and corporate management take the lessons on board?

[AtW]

Now one of the world’s most succesful manufacturers has seen its reputation shot to pieces, will IT companies and corporate management take the lessons on board?

No. Next!

I guess Toyota just cut down on testers of vehicles and made all its customers beta-testers...

[BlackenedBiker]

Great post old bean.

A Quality Manager in my early career once counciled me as follows:

"A delay in delivery will remain in the mind of the client for roughly the length of the delay. A drop in quality will remain there forever."

Sage advice

[AtW]

Great post old bean.

A Quality Manager that was made redundant to save costs in my early career once counciled me as follows:

"A delay in delivery will remain in the mind of the client for roughly the length of the delay. A drop in quality will remain there forever."

Sage advice

FTFY

[suityou01]

Great post old bean.

A Quality Manager in my early career once counciled me as follows:

"A delay in delivery will remain in the mind of the client for roughly the length of the delay. A drop in quality will remain there forever."

Sage advice

Loving this.

[Mich the Tester]

Great post old bean.

A Quality Manager in my early career once counciled me as follows:

"A delay in delivery will remain in the mind of the client for roughly the length of the delay. A drop in quality will remain there forever."

Sage advice

Good advice indeed.

It looks more and more like this will end in tears for Toyota. US customers are suing them for the extra depreciation as they can’t sell their cars on the second hand market without dropping the price to rock bottom. If they win, then lease companies all over the world might do the same thing. If that happens, Toyota might not survive this. That would be a terrible shame, not least for many thousands of people who conscientiously did their jobs day in day out and thought they were working for a good company.

However, it might serve as a warning for all corporate managers. As the Dutch say, a good reputation comes by foot but leaves on a horse.

[BlackenedBiker]

Good advice indeed.

It looks more and more like this will end in tears for Toyota. US customers are suing them for the extra depreciation as they can’t sell their cars on the second hand market without dropping the price to rock bottom. If they win, then lease companies all over the world might do the same thing. If that happens, Toyota might not survive this. That would be a terrible shame, not least for many thousands of people who conscientiously did their jobs day in day out and thought they were working for a good company.

However, it might serve as a warning for all corporate managers. As the Dutch say, a good reputation comes by foot but leaves on a horse.

I think that it is a short term blip. Medium to long term they should be okay as long as product quality returns to high levels. Toyota is a strong brand

[Mich the Tester]

I think that it is a short term blip. Medium to long term they should be okay as long as product quality returns to high levels. Toyota is a strong brand

I hope you're right. Mercedes have been through something like this and have come through with a rebuilt reputation. But remember, that was with one model, bottom of the range, completely new, in unusual circumstances and they responded quickly by investing more in solving the problems than they ever expected to make from that model. It seems that Toyota have problems with more than one model and that the management had been warned by techies about safety issues.

[Mich the Tester]

It seems to me that some corporate managers failed to understand their responsibilities. A company like Toyota has tens of thousands of employees, millions of customers and millions of direct or indirect (pension investors) shareholders who rely on them to do one thing above all; make and sell good products.

We’ve all seen managers rewarded handsomely for achieving some deadline or meeting a sales target or cutting costs by x. Have we ever seen people being rewarded anything like as handsomely for improving quality, or simply for preventing a mistake that could cost a business hundreds of millions or pounds?

[original PM]

It seems to me that some corporate managers failed to understand their responsibilities. A company like Toyota has tens of thousands of employees, millions of customers and millions of direct or indirect (pension investors) shareholders who rely on them to do one thing above all; make and sell good products.

We’ve all seen managers rewarded handsomely for achieving some deadline or meeting a sales target or cutting costs by x. Have we ever seen people being rewarded anything like as handsomely for improving quality, or simply for preventing a mistake that could cost a business hundreds of millions or pounds?

This is the same issue that has been going on for about 30 years - shareholders will continue to insisit on an increased return on investment the only way the borad can deliver that (especially in the current econmic climate) is to keep reducing costs and making cost cuts.

Once you have done the good thing of removing items which add cost but no value they then go on to remove the costs related to actual reuqired tasks and workstreams and the product fails.

Interestingly enough the only people who really loose in this scenario are the customer (obviously) and the loyal worker who has spent years supporting the company only to be sold down the river by weak board members and pushy stakeholders.

But I suppose we all need to understand that companies are here to make money and those who make the decisions have a sole interest in ensuring they are never out of pocket. Regardless of the impact.