Toyota Sales head Bob Carter fielding questions at the 2010 Prius introduction before it was recalled for defective brakes. Carter has no quality or recall authority.
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. (TMS) today announced that it is expanding its Product Quality Field Office program to four additional U.S. regional sales areas, following what it calls the success of a pilot program launched in the New York region in late 2009.
Toyota is also slowing down its product development system in Japan, once noted for its for speed.
It was the New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, who first extracted additional services last winter for New York Toyota and Lexus customers – more than 500,000 of them – who were affected by Toyota’s growing number of safety recalls. So having a New York quality office is a good idea.
“It is unacceptable that New York consumers should face additional burdens when dealing with a safety problem that is Toyota’s responsibility,” Cuomo said in a statement at the time. (See New York Attorney General Gets Valet Service for Recalled Toyota and Lexus Owners and Toyota Promises Nationwide Valet Service for Recalled Toyota and Lexus Vehicles)
TMS will open its next Product Quality Field Office in San Francisco this month, and an additional three offices across the U.S. during the next 12 months. Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) announced that it will establish Product Quality Field Offices in Toronto and Calgary, which means that seven offices will be located in North America.
Toyota is also extending the time it takes to introduce new vehicles by a month for more quality checks, a top executive said Wednesday to a group of junketing American journalists in Japan.
Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said the company needs to slow the pace of its product development system. The Detroit Bureau was not invited to attend the Toyota paid event, perhaps because of our ongoing coverage of Toyota safety and quality issues, including the breaking news story about defective Prius brakes. (See NHTSA Tracking Braking Loss on Prius Hybrids) It was not immediately clear what the small amount of additional time would provide given the complexity of Toyota’s recall issues, which encompass design, manufacturing, supplier parts and electronic calibration issues.
It currently takes Toyota about 24 months to bring a new vehicle to market in Japan, Uchiyamada said. The time varies in other markets, including the United States. The amount of product development time is misleading since Toyota never introduces a “new” vehicle, relying instead on using on average more than half of existing components. It also relies on common components across multiple vehicle lines, which can lead to huge recalls if a problem arises.
“Staffed by technical and engineering specialists with expertise drawn from across Toyota’s global operations, these Product Quality Field Offices strengthen Toyota’s North American field technical presence and data gathering and reporting capabilities, enhancing the company’s ability to detect, analyze and respond to customer and quality issues in the field,” Toyota claimed in its statement.
It was established during multiple U.S. Congressional hearings on Toyota unintended acceleration deaths that the U.S. operation is nothing more than a sales office, with recall, design, engineering and manufacturing quality decisions residing with Japanese executives located in Japan.
It took the personal intervention of Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, to force Toyota to recall millions of defective vehicles. Ultimately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is part of LaHood’s responsibilities, fined Toyota a record of more than $16 million for the cover up about unintended acceleration safety defects.
Toyota says the Product Quality Field Offices are being established with the mandate to investigate specific field quality issues related to unique regional, geographical or environmental conditions in each area. The New York region office was developed to investigate the performance of Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles in cold weather climates, with an emphasis on corrosion issues. A new San Francisco office will focus on hybrid vehicle systems and durability, capitalizing on the high concentration of these vehicles in the California market.
Toyota is evaluating opening additional offices in Jacksonville, Florida to focus on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and drivability; Houston, Texas to concentrate on trucks and chassis components; and Denver, Colorado to study high altitude performance and SUV models. Offices in Toronto and Calgary will focus on extreme seasonal temperature changes and high road salt usage.
“Everyone at Toyota is working aggressively to understand what our customers are experiencing and to respond quickly to their needs by enhancing our information gathering capabilities,” said Dino Triantafyllos, vice president, quality division, Toyota Motor Engineering and manufacturing (TEMA). “The expansion of our Product Quality Field Offices initiative is one example of the significant changes we are making across our North American operations to help ensure that we are a quality-focused and responsive organization.”