Toyota Plans More Testing.. A Little Late

The Wall Street Journal reports that Toyota (TM) will probably become more aggressive as it tests its cars for quality in the future. That may be of little comfort to people who bought one of the eight million cars that have been recalled or one of the 2010 Prius hybrid models that seem to have brake problems.

Companies with consumer confidence trouble have an odd way of trying to reassuring the public after major quality problems occur.

Toyota has fallen into the trap that firms with product safety issues often do. They announce all the new inspection measures that they plan once it is clear that their earlier inspection methods were no good. This has happened in the meat packing and toy industries in the last two years. It happens in the aviation industry every few years. A plane crashes and the aerospace company that manufactured it asks airline to inspect or replace a part or two.

Toyota may say that as its manufacturing facilities grew over the years to accommodate higher demand its quality review process could not keep up. But, vehicle inspection is no harder than vehicle building. As a matter of fact, it should take less time and effort to look at a car’s quality than it takes to assemble a car with hundreds of parts.

Toyota’s quality inspection problems seem to be no more than simple carelessness.

Douglas A. McIntyre