Archive for the ‘Quality’ Category
Your Toyota is My Toyota
Posted by Colin Hensley on June 14, 2010 in Quality
You may have recently seen some of our advertising that is part of our campaign called “Your Toyota is my Toyota.” It features some of the people who work at our company in manufacturing or in the retailer or the national sales companies. Each of them exclaims “My Toyota!” Our aim is to show the real commitment that each and every one of our team members has to ensure quality for our customers.
In the extended versions of the vignettes each of the members explains, in their own words, what they are doing to ensure quality is guaranteed during their part of the process of designing, engineering, producing or selling a Toyota car. I have to say I still get goose-bumps when I watch some of these videos, even though I have seen them many times. I can really feel the passion that my colleagues have for what they do, and I have a huge amount of respect for them and their absolute commitment to ensuring quality.
You might imagine it would be difficult to go into the plant and persuade people to go on camera and talk about their jobs, but it wasn’t. Once the producer had walked around and explained what they wanted to do, many of the members were keen to get involved. The reason why, I think, is actually similar to the use of the andon cord in the plant, which Bridie Tucker explains in her vignette. People recognized that there was a problem that needed to be solved, and raised their hand to do what had to be done to solve it. In this case it wasn’t a blemish or a checking for a leak it was reassuring our customers that we will continue to do everything we can to make the best cars possible.
Take a look at the rest of the vignettes and tell us what you think. Click here
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Comments(1)WELCOMING THE PRESIDENT TO TME
Posted by Colin Hensley on March 25, 2010 in Quality
We had a pretty extraordinary day on Tuesday. Some of you may have seen the coverage in the media already, our President, Akio Toyoda visited Belgium. He started his flying visit by dropping in at Toyota City, one of the local dealers. While Toyoda-san was there, he talked to the customers who were waiting for their cars to be serviced, or even have the modification made for the recalls. He also went down into the workshop to have a close look at how the small metal shim is being added to the accelerator pedal. I talked to some of the people working there, and they were all very proud to have been the subject of this visit.
Toyoda-san then came to our offices to address all of the members. He gave a resounding speech, where he talked about both the difficult times that we have been through recently and his expectations for the future operations in Europe. <you can read the speech here> There were also words from representatives of the dealers, the manufacturing plants and the employees. It was honestly quite moving to see the great response he received from all of my colleagues who had gathered together.
There was also a chance for a small group of our media to talk to Toyoda-san, and because of this, I needed to brief the President directly on the European media situation. I must say, Toyoda-san is both charming and attentive, listening carefully and making pertinent comments.
While it will still take a few more months until the recall campaign is completed here in Europe, this event really felt like another great step towards the future for our company. In fact, one of the things Toyoda-san said himself during the day was that he felt this was a “fresh start” for Toyota.
I can tell, from first hand experience, President Toyoda really does love cars, and wants to bring that passion for design, manufacturing and marketing of cars back into all parts of our company. I know my colleagues in TME and I are ready to take on the challenge.
