President Toyoda Details Plan To Restore Toyota Quality, Consumer Trust
By Michelle Krebs February 9, 2010In advance of Wednesday's Congressional hearings on the automaker's recent recalls, 
Toyota Motor Co. President Akio Toyoda detailed in a letter published in the Washington Post his plan to restore product quality and regain customer trust.
In the letter printed in Tuesday's edition, Toyoda, grandson of the company founder, accepted personal responsibility and apologized for the recalls, vowing to Toyota back on track.
Toyoda, who has been largely invisible during the last few weeks of recalls and negative headlines, wrote: "You have my commitment that Toyota will revitalize the simple but powerful principle that has guided us for 50 years: Toyota will build the highest-quality, safest and most reliable automobiles in the world."
He acknowledged: "Toyota has not lived up to the high standards we set for ourselves. More important, we have not lived up to the high standards you have come to expect from us. I am deeply disappointed by that and apologize. As the president of Toyota, I take personal responsibility. That is why I am personally leading the effort to restore trust in our word and in our products."
His plan is to:
1 - launch a top-to-bottom review of our global operations to ensure that problems of this magnitude do not happen again and that Toyota not only meets but exceeds "the high safety standards that have defined our long history." Toyota is establishing an Automotive Center of Quality Excellence in the United States, made up of a team of top engineers to strengthen quality management and quality control.
2 - establish a blue-ribbon safety advisory group made up of respected outside experts in quality management to review Toyota operations and eliminate deficiencies in the processes. Toyoda said the group's findings will be made public.
3 - aggressively investigate complaints from consumers and move more quickly to address any safety issues Toyota itself identifies, as it has done with the global recalls of the Toyota Prius and Lexus HS 250 hybrid, he said.
4 - institute steps to better share quality and safety information across global operations, a shortcoming that led to the current situation with sticky pedals that was discovered first in Europe, he noted.
5 - increase outreach to government safety agencies. Toyoda said he has personally assured U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the lines of communication will be open and frequent.
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none of this is required. All they have to do is take complaints from employees or customers seriously and act on them. Its that simple. Toyota owners complained about acceleration issues only to have dealers tell them it was a user issue. No wonder Toyota is in this mess. Now that they are embarrassed suddenly they claim its all about putting the customer first.
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