Toyota’s quality chiefs
February 23rd, 2010 by Richard Aucock
TOYOTA is creating new chief quality officer roles worldwide to improve response to customer complaints.
The global giant has acknowledged current quality worries by setting up the new roles.
There will be one for each specific region worldwide, says Toyota, with the first new quality head role being set up in America.
The aim is to have a fast-response team conducting on-sight inspections within 24 hours of any quality incident being reported.
The firm hopes this will reassure customers that it wants to restore its reputation for quality, by prioritising customer feedback. Indeed, there’s even going to be a brand new ‘Special Committee for Global Quality’, to coordinate the efforts of all these new people.
It will meet for the first time at the end of March – where first priority will be to digest the findings of independent research Toyota has commissioned into its accelerator control mechanism.
Toyota has also installed some technical modifications to further ease customer worries over brakes and accelerators. All future models will include a brake override system that cuts engine power when brake and accelerator are pressed at the same time.
More use will also be made of on-board data recording, to help investigations in the case of malfunctions.
What do you think of the ongoing response to the recent Toyota quality dramas?
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