DETROIT - Toyota's Tendency to dismiss Customer Complaints and Lack of a clear procedure for handling safety Problems Were Identified Flaws Among Monday by a panel The automaker Created to Investigate RECALLS icts of More Than 14 million vehicles sincere 2009.
The seven-member panel, Composed of company outsiders and headed by a train United States transportation secretary, Rodney E. Slater, Toyota Said HAD taken important steps Toward Some improvement, Including The Appointment Of A Global chief safety officer, made to Many Additional recommendations. It Said, for instance, Toyota That Should Have a single executive icts Oversee North American Operations, Which Operate as Separate dirty now, and manufacturing engineering organisms, EACH reporting to executives in Japan.
The panel, Which Is icts midway-through two-year tenure, did "not try to Identify whether" any electronic defects Could Have Caused vehicles to Accelerate Suddenly.An investigation by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found no evidence of An electronic problem, mirroring Toyota's Assertion That The Problems Were Limited to defective accelerator pedals and ill-fitting floor mats.
Purpose Monday's postponement Toyota HAD Been Said slow to Discover the pedal and floor mat from it Because Viewed Complaints Made To The gold company to Federal Regulators about sudden acceleration skeptically and defensively. Toyota Said It HAD failed to apply "The Principles of icts manufacturing process, Known as" the Toyota Way "and Built Around the Concept of Detecting and Responding to Problems Quickly, to Evaluate criticism from external sources.
The postponement Described Toyota's Attitudes toward Regulators, Which The Company fined Nearly $ 50 million for Taking too long to Initiate recall, as "adversarial."
"The postponement o Confirms That view Toyota's culture - One That works well in times of stability - left it uniquely vulnerable to a fast-moving crisis," Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of The impounded information Web site Edmunds.com, said.
The postponement Said Toyota HAD Treated Differently from Other Manufacturers safety, by lumping it Into the larger end of "quality" and making it part of everyone's responsibility "Rather Than Assigning it to specific executives and employed.
"Safety and quality are very different attributes, and a Process That Produces quality vehicles Will not Necessarily Produce safe vehicles," Said one panel member, Brian O'Neill, president of form The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety us fast cash. "This safety philosophy Might Suffer From The old adage, 'When Everyone Is Responsible, No One Is Accountable." "
The panel members shall With Numerous Toyota executive, talked With The President Akio Toyoda, shortly after the March earthquake in Japan by telephone and visited Many Of The Company's plants and offices to study What Happened Leading Up to the recall. The panel IS Being Paid by Toyota, declined, members aim to reveal Their compensation Citing confidentialité agreements.
Some though THEY HAD Been Said longtime Toyota and Lexus drivers, all insisted optometrist HAD ACTED Independently, And They conceded Toyota That WAS Unlikely To Follow All Of Their recommendations.
Some Of The panel members Suggested thats the seriousness and frequency of sudden acceleration incidents The HAD Been overblown.
"Any machine built by" any company, As Long As They Employ Humans, IS Going To Be Imperfect, "Said Norman R. Augustine, chief executive form of Lockheed Martin. "The record for Toyota Is That Safety Issues Are So That infrequent, statistiquement, one should" Be very comfortable driving a Toyota or Lexus. "Added Mr. Augustine That he drove a Lexus.
Among the top recommendations By The panel is for Toyota to corporate structure and Decentralization icts break down the "silos" within organism icts That "Hindered information-sharing and Contributed to miscommunication." The postponement Concluded, "Toyota has erred too much on the Side centralization of global and Needs to Shift the Balance Somewhat Toward Greater local authority and control. "
Toyota Said It Already HAD Given more decision-making authority "to executive icts Outside headquarters, particularly in North America, Where It Created a position of chief quality officer More than a year ago. The company has aussi Added more time for testing Into The Development of new vehicles.
"Over the past year, Toyota has a great deal Learned from Listening to the panel's Valuable counsel," Mr. Toyoda Said in a statement."Their advice has been" Reflected In The steps we've taken Meaningful to Give Our North American operations more Autonomy and Become an Even More Safety-Focused and responsive company. "
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