My Toyota Dilemma, Part Two

Field notes on car-purchasing, American style

Wed, 05/30/2012 - 10:09

Last year I wrote a column titled “My Toyota Dilemma,” what I considered a nice little story about how I, an avid fan of the Toyota quality principles, didn’t actually own a Toyota, and how ironic that was. However, Quality Digest fans, I can now declare that I am—well, really my wife is—a proud owner of a Toyota automobile.

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In the fall of 2011, I relocated, through my employer, from the United Kingdom to Louisiana. Moving to the United States meant we had to sell our European cars, but this wasn’t due to the fact that the steering wheel is on the right side of the car (and when I say “right,” I mean that it’s on the correct side). We sold them because moving our cars wasn’t part of the relocation package.

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Comments

I'm impressed with the UK standards, which would be thought onerous here (for brevity, I won't get into the pros and cons of the USA and its citizens' mindsets).  Do they enjoy public support?  Does the car-buying ecosystem there provide good, balanced outcomes for all the stakeholders - mfrs, dealers, customers, municipalities and the environment?  Does "hacking" your Toyota's interior and electrical void the warranty?

Submitted by jpg366 on Fri, 06/08/2012 - 17:01

Paul, I've been there.  It's more like a bus tour but you may get some time in a conference room with some young team leaders.  Surprising to see the andon cord pulled about once a minute somewhere.

For us, it was overwhelming to see a mature Production System in operation.  Had I not been reading about Toyota for years (Liker, Rother, and others) I would not have recognized much of what I saw.

I'm involved with the Operations Excellence Consortium in Texas, and they have regular meetings and tours to see Lean in action at various ages.  Great chance to benchmark and see how others do things.

My truck is from California (NUUMI, shortly before GM pulled out and it folded).  As you found, quality is throughout. 

Regards,

    John G

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