Toyota's Quality Control Training Lapsed

Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, has recently stated on his Japanese blog that quality control training of its workers failed to keep pace with the company's growth. Here is a quote from the UKPA:

"Toyoda, grandson of the carmaker's founder, said the problem became especially acute after Toyota's global production and sales topped six million vehicles in its fiscal year 2002...

'It has been tough and frustrating emotionally for me, but we must accept it as an inevitable,' he told Japan's top business daily The Nikkei in a front-page interview published on Thursday...

Toyoda was widely criticised for being invisible when the quality problems surfaced last year. He has appeared since then at news conferences in Japan, and attended a US congressional hearing last month on Toyota's recalls...

Earlier this week, he wrote in his Japanese blog for the first time since the recall troubles hit, apologising to customers.

Writing under his handle Morizo, he said Toyota would 'Take seriously, accept humbly and respond sincerely' to criticism.

In the Nikkei interview, he promised to beef up quality controls, including promoting non-Japanese employees, to better respond to different customer needs, to become a 'small Toyota', instead of focusing on sales expansion."

There was no shortage of apologizing, hopefully we will see a similar amount of action.

Read the full story here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iUZtZvV9smQK0daANXWtAU1KLfPQ