Gas Pedal Japan's Toyota and Reputation Technology

As a champion of technology-especially manufacturing-automotive, so far the Japanese position is very solid. There are other manufacturers in America and Europe that could make the car better than Japan, but Japan remains the dominant product in the world. No wonder when Toyota Motor Corp. and become the number one car maker in the world.

In addition to selling its products, various styles of management and production of Toyota and many a reference. In 2001 came the Toyota Way book which contains 14 principles of values and behaviors that must be followed by employees. With that, what is spoken in a number of books on Japan's industrial success stories, like the work of Carl Mosk (Japanese Industrial History: Technology, Urbanization, and Economic Growth, 2001) as if amplified. Japan achieve supremacy.

While visiting the legendary Boeing factory in Everett, Seattle, years ago and see how efficient manufacture of aircraft that rule the aeronautical world today, ranging from the Next Generation 737, 777, and 747, Boeing guides do not be shy to say, the process that they follow ( with a license) from Toyota.

Japan succeeded in developing into an industry giant after the building of the 17th century until the 20th century. Many of us who still remember the history, how Commodore Perry and a U.S. fleet in 1856 to open Japan and exposed to Western culture and technology. After that the seeds of Japan's technological superiority began to blossom, rapidly modernizing childbirth. The success of Japan beat Russia in the 1905 war can not be released from the barrage of progress.

However, this time our focus point in the latest incident, why did Toyota become the world's auto giants make headlines in a number of world media. That's not because Toyota has recently attracted about 8.1 million cars popular brands (The Wall Street Journal, 09/02/2010). Finally, there is news of this manufacturer plans to attract nearly 300,000 hybrid cars (petrol electric) that favored Prius (AFP, Yahoo, 8/2/2010).

The reason that withdrawal is the presence of user complaints, which is often jammed gas pedal, making the car like driving alone without being able to control the driver. Because it is directly related to driving safety, this inevitably becomes a big issue, which is not only a direct slap Toyota, but also Japan.

In terms of Toyota, it is very heavy because the Toyota-brand as it is called Jeff Kingston (TWSJ, 8 / 2)-synonymous with quality and reliability. Toyota now has to pay dearly for any loss due to attractive products worth 2 billion U.S. dollars, and since the recall was announced on Jan. 21, the shares have declined 17 percent.Tomorrow, the price paid will still be more expensive.

"Soul-searching"

For a nation that was so obsessed with quality and technical skills (craftmanship), what happened with Toyota's gas pedal is very obvious cause great embarrassment. In this regard, the case of the gas pedal and even then make a lot of parties in Japan thoughtful look what went wrong in terms of culture and psyche (soul-searching.)

Understand it, then this case is not just a matter of mockery, but also harsh criticism. As I mentioned the book The Toyota Way, writers such as Katrina Ramser (Asylum.com, 8/2/2010) call, it seems there are people in the Toyota factory that intricate mixes the concept of "young" and "kaizen" (The title alone is sharp writing, recalls Make Fabled "Toyota Way" Look-Withdrawal Make Way Gone "Toyota way" a lot Didongengkan That Looks Missed Period).

According to the teachings, the employee must find a purpose in whatever we do. Doctrine "young" calls "do not waste a lot of (time) to do something. Then, the doctrine of "kaizen" call, "If you do not do it correctly, working hard to fix it." What Toyota turned into a factory in a hurry and, on the other hand, less hard work to repair the wrong?

If the doctrine were so many and obvious, why was there a mistake? "Editorial" the daily Asahi Shimbun (as summarized by the International Herald Tribune, 02/09/2010, quoted at the beginning of this article) mentioned, one of the factors that lie behind Toyota's current difficulties is that too rapid globalization of the company, which then impact on product quality. Components of the gas pedal the problem itself is actually supplied by American manufacturers. Apparently, Toyota failed to ensure, product suppliers were free of design errors and quality problems.

Who criticized the way the Toyota handles defective product recall crisis, this implies the existence of excess trust attitude and smug for having to overtake GM as the world's number one car manufacturer.

Lessons

Today the automotive world in addition to entry in the fierce competition, is also not free from environmental issues. As with aviation, automotive green is also a hot theme among manufacturers.

When talking about the American automotive crisis, one that makes American producers saggy is too late to respond to the changing times, where consumers prefer cars are smaller, more fuel efficient, and oriented to renewable fuels, not more fossil. This is where the Japanese manufacturer is deemed more sprightly and winning. Toyota Prius is one of proof. Hybrid cars and electric cars will no doubt be a vehicle of the future.

However, when all the producers started to do the same in green automotive framework, only the manufacturer of the superior aspect of the course will be selected keselamatanlah consumers.

Before this, the world has enjoyed a number of works of Japanese technological innovation, ranging from car, walkman, to digital cameras. Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, and many more have built a reputation of Japanese technology and at the same time making it as number two in the world economy.

Toyota accelerator incident has shaken that reputation. Japanese homework now must restore reputation because without it, the wave will certainly change meminggirkannya. As mentioned header Asahi Shimbun, the 21st century will go through turbulence when changes in market structure and transformative technologica