Case Study: Developing Chinks in the Vaunted “Toyota Way”

Introduction Since 2005 Toyota has dominated the car industry but when people spoke of Toyota is was never to say that it had the best fuel efficiency, faster or even more luxurious. They always spoke about how solid the car was, how good it was on gas and how they really never had a problem with the Toyota they bought. Everyone that spoke about Toyota always said that it was a great car for a great price. Toyota has always focused on making a quality car for a fair price and had the reputation as a great company to work for. The people that worked for Toyota always felt they were making a difference and part of a team. They felt their work mattered and problems were not swept under a rug in order to turn a profit…until recently. Over the last couple of years it seems that Toyota has run into more than their fair share of problems. Now when people talk about Toyota they mention mechanical problems or problems with the quality of the product. What has changed? What has taken Toyota off the path of a great car for a great price? Has Toyota sacrificed quality for quantity in order to turn a larger profit or was something behind all of this? Was part of the plan to recover the United States auto industry to put into question the quality of the foreign automobile?
Issues Addressed What has taken Toyota away from “The Toyota Way (Nelson and Quick, 2011-586)?” The Toyota way is, according to Toyota, a set of principles that have, until recently, set the standard for all other auto makers to follow. Toyota listens to the employee’s suggestions and even implements them if they make sense. Toyota recently conducted a study of the their products against the competitors, component by component only to find that just over half of all of their products were superior. This type of findings found Toyota was suffering from mediocrity and maybe Toyota’s pursuit of profit and becoming number one caused the loss of focus of the original

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