Yamile Macklin
Course Project Week 7
Toyota Motor Company
Managing Quality
BSOP588 Managing Quality
02/03/14

Toyota Motor Company Quality Management

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), is commonly known as Toyota in the stock markets was founded in 1933 By Kiichiro Toyoda. Toyota has enjoyed continuous growth in the automotive industry for decades as the largest automobile manufacturer and multinational automaker with an excess of five million vehicles per year, employing over 320,000 employees, and 14 plants in North America.
After years of success in the auto industry as a credible and quality driven automaker, near the end of 2009 a horrifying car crash in Southern California led to the discovery of a major issue. With the assistance of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Toyota began recalling vehicles after reports that various vehicles experienced unintended acceleration. This 2009 recall was diagnosed as a possible incursion or incorrect or out-of-place front driver’s side floor mat, which can cause pedal entrapment. In October of 2009 Toyota begins sending out letters to owner notifying them of an unspecified upcoming recall to fix an unintended acceleration issue (Eugene). This recall was quickly followed by two massive recalls in early 2010 for related issues.
The second recall occurred January 21, 2010 and was enacted after several vehicle accidents were declared to have no relation to the floor mat issue, but instead a new and more complex issue. This later defect was identified as a possible mechanical sticking of the accelerator pedal causing unintended acceleration, referred to as Sticking Accelerator Pedal by Toyota. The original action was initiated by Toyota in their Defect Information Report, dated October 5, 2009, amended January 27, 2010. Accordingly Toyota also issued a separate recall for hybrid anti-lock brake