The document summarizes Toyota's operations issues and quality recalls from 2009-2011, and the steps taken by Toyota's Special Committee for Global Quality to address problems and regain customer trust. The committee implemented various approaches, including strengthening information gathering and analysis, increasing technical staff, and revising training programs. Their efforts showed gradual improvement in positive customer sentiment from 2010-2011, though more work remained to fully recover Toyota's competitive position.

1. Refining the Problem Statement
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Strategic Operations Management
Problem Statement
An operations improvement plan is an act of advancing all the
interest of a business by restructuring the process of operations
rather than tackling problems one at a time. In this paper am
going to go about by referring at the previous and most recent
issues at the Toyota Company and how the management is
handling the challenges by putting new strategies into motion.
The Toyota Motor Corporation was established in 1933 with its
headquarters housed in Japan, it was founded by Kiichiro
Toyoda. Ever since its inception into the market Toyota has
achieved a strong growth while placing their high quality
products as their mainstay in the corporate world hence winning
hearts of many customers. The company grew very first and its
customer base expanded with a high increase in customer
expectations, these are the some of the factors that caused the

2. major crisis that hit the company relating to issues of safety and
confidence.
The crisis hit on November 2 of 2009, when the company had to
recall 3.8 million vehicles due to accelerator pedals being
trapped by the floor mats, weeks later 400,000 more vehicles
were recalled triggered a car collusion that took four lives in
August 2009. (Greto) These adversely affected customers’
attitude as negatives rose up to 22% while the positive steadily
fell to 78%. (Greto) More recalls came in on January 21, 2010
as millions of vehicles came back due to customer complaints
with accelerator pedals sticking in cars without the floor mats.
More recalls were experienced in 2010 from February to April
with a string of problems. With these major recalls Starch data
revealed that customer’s negative feelings rose by 19 points up
to 41% while positive feelings fell by the same margin down to
59%. (Sapporo)
These heart breaking recall have led to a fresh beginning at the
company which took a step forward by changing their motto to
Moving Forward, an attempt by the company to win its
customers back and reassure them of a brighter future. Starch
data show that the strategy is working but at a gradual pace as
more positive feeling have been gaining with an increase of 11
points that is from May 2010 to December 2011.
Whenever a problem occurs it is in the culture of the Toyota
Company to determine the basic cause and take effective
measures to rectify and improve o the challenges faced. In
response to the Special Committee for Global Quality chaired
by President Akio Toyoda who was part of the founding family
was formed. The intended purpose of the committee was to give
an ear to customers showing great commitment to a fundamental
review of their attitudes towards operations and try to establish
a good customer relations base with their entire consumer in all
sectors of the economy. The results by the committee will be
released to the public in due time after being verified and
assessed by external advisors. The committee came up with the

3. following objectives after their finds: Human resource
development that reinforces a customer first approach, (Greto)
Early Detection and Early Resolution based on customer choice,
assessment by outsiders, product development focused on
customer safety and confidence, and independence of quality
management practices.
The committee implemented an array of approaches to address
the worsening situation in gathering of information and
inconsistence in sharing of information between regional offices
and headquarters. It aims to reconstruct high level management
processes thoroughly. Internal functions with newly appointed
Chief Quality Officers represent the voice of the customer from
across the world .Recovery plans are put in place as attendees
carried out studies in Design quality, Manufacturing quality
sales quality and service quality as solutions in accordance with
customers opinions.
Organizational Position of the TMC Special Committee for
Global Quality (as of march 30, 2010)
The president stated that the company will improve the safety
decision making process and quicken their implementation by
strengthening their systems of information gathering near
customers. Secondly the company will with immediate effect
increase the number of technical officers to enhance
communication of technical information use to determine the
necessity of the recalls and quality improvement, thirdly the use
of EDRs and communication functions to lend hand in root
cause analysis. These devices record acceleration braking and
all other vehicle performances. The company too has created an
integrated quality information system for strengthening
information analysis and improving the safety decision making
process. The firm has also come up with model for early
detection and early resolution based on reinforced information
gathering and Genchi and Genbutsu.

4. In July 2010, 5 training centers were opened to maintain quality
and the company’s lifeline. The program majored in quality
cultivation control experts and problems location specific, the
program includes Basic and Expert training.
The committee concerted effort to review corporate approach
towards reinforcement of customers ‘perspectives. A safety
Guide Book a manual for safety education was revised as a
briefing tool to communicate to the customers some of the basic
things to do in case of an emergency or activities to carry out to
avoid accident and some of the simple problems faced by the
customers, An internal discussion on the issue of quality and
recall issue was carried out to familiarize employees with the
systems put in place and also to hear their views regarding new
means of facing the challenges that the company was facing.
Counteractions were developed after 13 issues were brought up,
new bodies were formed as joint activities were pushed with
suppliers the objective being to achieve high quality products
Toyota was faced with tough challenges but they have managed
to come through in their most needed time as the new strategies
put in place are bearing heavily, still far from their original
competitive state but with a lot of zeal being shown by those in
leadership a lot is expected from this famous company.
Data Collection Tools
The following are the data collection tools used;
Box and Whisker Plots: Used display multiple sets of variable
elements on a single graph. For instance, in the figure below.
Check Sheets: Has several uses, is structured and prepared form
for data collection and analysis
Control Charts: Graph used to study how a process changes over
time
Design of experiment: A method for carrying out carefully
planned experiments.

5. Histograms: A graph mostly used to show frequency distribution
Scatter diagram: Shows relationship between two variables
Stratification: Used to separate data gathered from many
different sources to bring out a pattern
Survey: Data collected from specific groups of people about
opinions
The flow charts were used in collection of data to clearly bring
out the different stages take in the implementation process as it
illustrates out shown in plain sight right from the first stage
through to the last stage. I also used a histogram to relate the
change both positive and negative feelings of the customers as
it is easy to draw and understand.
With the new trends being developed it’s highly recommended
that the company integrates new modern facilities to help reload
some of the tasks on employees thus cutting cost spend on
wages. Modern technologies have positive effects all round as
the increase in both quality and quantity of produce. Emphasis
is put on good customer relation management services as this
provides the company with lifelong clients. The most important
aspect to be considered is the safety of their clients
Reference
Greto, M. (2010). “Toyota: The Accelerator Crisis”,
unpublished article for Thunderbird School of Global
Management,

6. Piotrowski, C., & Guyette, R.. (2010). Toyota Recall Crisis:
Public Attitudes on Leadership and Ethics. Organization
Development Journal, 28(2), 89-97.
Sapporo B, Schuman, M, &Szczesny, J. (2010) Behind the
Troubles at Toyota Time, 1-3.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1963595,00.h
tml
Jupp V., &Sapsford R. (2006). Data collection and analysis.
London: SAGE.
Pratt, B., & Loizos, P. (1992). Choosing research methods: Data
collection for development workers. Oxford: Oxfam.
Tague, N. R. (1995). The quality toolbox. Milwaukee, Wisc:
ASQC Quality Press.
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Assignment---13
Discuss a common cause of illness in 3rd world countries
related to nutrition. What global goals have been developed in
Healthy People 2020 related to nutrition?