Negotiation: Problem Solving and Toyota Leadership Essay

Submitted By lcxsdyw
Words: 468
Pages: 2

1. What did Toyota do Wrong? Ie., What were the major mistakes?
The problem that Toyota faced was quality crisis related to accelerator pedal issue. Over 8 million vehicles have been recalled for these problems—an aftermarket floor mat that, if not clipped down properly, can interfere with the gas pedal; a pedal from one supplier that can get "sticky" because a composite material interacts with moisture over time as it wears. A critical contributor to these problems might be that Toyota leadership abandoned their quality driven system for increased market share and rapid growth. With the strategy to grab more markets shares in order to growth rapidly, new products had to be introduced more quickly, new plants had to be opened more rapidly, and supply chain networks had to be expanded more aggressively. I think it was the step that Toyota did wrong. Quality should always be the key competency and main focus for Toyota.

2. What should Toyota do now?
I believe that Toyota should have a right attitude to respond to the crisis. They should not delay recall the cars and have a slow response to the public. Instead, they should face the evidence that problems exist with its accelerators. And Toyota has to learn to trust non-Japanese leaders in order to communicate efficiently to avoid delay fixing future problems. Furthermore, The top management and engineers should focus on root cause analysis and coming up with solutions in order to recover its reputation from public. Moreover, I suggest that Toyota needs to break down problems into a smaller set of more tractable problems. Teams might be set up to focus on more targeted areas such as quality & safety development, customer-complaint management, engineering changes, public relations, and government relationships. For example, Toyota could implement total quality management to