Response Discussion 3.1

Is Quality an Issue for Your Client Company?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to at least two. See below. When responding to others, seek clari�Ź�cation, share your personal experiences that relate to their experiences, and provide feedback on their posts.

Student 1

There is no doubt that Toyota's reputation was affected with the quality issues. The issues were

additionally intensified by the media. There were two main reasons for Toyota's quality issues. The first

was the administration's desire for fast development. The second was the aftereffect of the expanding

production. Both fast development and expanded inventory unpredictability had significant

ramifications for Toyota's administration and its general execution (Ingrassia, 2009). Toyota's issues

were not caused by a broken framework but rather by poor choices made by administration.

Specifically, the organization's officials neglected to react to early indications of quality issues.

Apple faces issues with battery life. Some batteries are not lasting a year. In addition to the battery

issue, Apple has not advised why the issue exists. Instead, Apple has offered a discount on replacement

batteries. The signifies that Apple has chosen to replace the battery rather tackle the cause of the issue

(Pierce, 2018). There will always be opportunities and threats that could affect a company. Because of

this, leaders should enact policies to help as they figure out how to adjust to rising difficulties.

References:

Ingrassia, Paul. (2009, January 5). Toyota Isn’t Immune From the Recession. The Wall Street

Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123112023622652953.

Pierce, David. (2018, April 9). Check Your IPhone Battery’s Health-and if You’ve Been Throttled. The Wall

Street

Journal. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/check-your-

iphone-batterys-

healthand-if-youve-been-throttled-1523289684.

Student 2

Would you say that your company's current dilemma is related to any quality issues?

I do believe that my company's current dilemma is related to quality issues. My OIP company is

Toyota; there is a lot of issues relating to Toyota, but I am working on the recent recall of Prius Hybrids

in 2018. The reason why I believe that Toyota has quality issue is because of the amount of time a recall

happens. The 2009 Acceleration problem probably occurred due to meeting the quota. After this,

Toyota has had other issues; they would come up with a solution, apologize to their customers and

move on. There were 13 separate recalls just in the span of six months in 2010, ranging from steering

control to fuel leak (Cole, 2011). Now in 2018, there's another recall, which is the topic I'm writing

about. Toyota's hybrid cars were recalled because the front of the car was wearing out which causes a

short circuit; this then emits odor, smoke and flames (Consumer Report, 2018).

It seems that since automobile companies must release new cars every year, there has been pressure to

keep up. I had never understand why companies must release vehicles every year; they are not focused

on the problem at hand, but on trying to create a better car, the old car is probably better than the new

car. There are probably different departments working on this, but the amount of recalls Toyota has is

staggering. Not only are they losing money, lives are being lost because of the quantity and quota that

has to be met. From 2008 to 2010, Toyota's brand value went down by 25% globally and lost $8 billion in

that two years (Gerondeau, 2015). This loss should have shown that a change needs to be done, now in

2018, that change has not been met. There needs to be a change done internally, and that means

training their employees, making sure they take mandatory breaks. Toyota has manufacturing facilities

all around the world, each employer has different work ethic. Human error is inevitable, but corporate

should be able to enact rules and regulations that will deflect these mishaps.

Reference:

Gerondeau, G. (2015, September 23). How Toyota recovered from a huge crisis. What can be learned

from it. Retrieved October 23, 2018 from https://thethirdroad.com/?p=280

Barry, K. (2018). Toyota recalls prius hybrids for fire risk: a worn-out wire harness could cause a short

circuit. Consumer Reports Inc. Retrieved 23, 2018 from https://www.consumerreports.org/car-recalls-

defects/toyota-prius-recall-for-fire-risk/

Cole, R. (2011) What really happened to Toyota. MIT Sloan Management Review. Cambridge Vol 52,

Iss 4. Retrieved October 23, 2018 from https://search-proquest-

com.library.capella.edu/docview/875531966?accountid=27965