Toyota’s current dilemma results from a perfect storm of factors that include rapid expansion that led to strained resources and wishful thinking, both amplified by a parochial management structure.
That is the assessment of Michael Smitka, Washington and Lee University professor of economics who specializes in the automotive industry and the Japanese economy.
According to Smitka, Toyota’s expansion strained its engineering resources.
“Engineers were remote from the market and are rotated from project to project rather than being encouraged to specialize,” Smitka says. “It is likely that in the process the institutional memory of why, for example, one accelerator pedal design is used in Japan and another everywhere else has been lost – an item first used in 2005 would have been sourced in 2003 or earlier.
“In addition, those decisions were almost certainly made in Japan, and not at the Toyota Technical Center outside Ann Arbor. But few of the hands-on engineers in Toyota City have worked extensively outside Japan, and they would be unlikely to understand the penchant of Americans to throw a cheap floor mat on top of the Toyota one to keep it pristine. Long lines of communication would make it less likely they would ask for, or listen to, outside advice.”
Smitka is the author of the book, Competitive Ties: Subcontracting in the Japanese Automotive Industry, and numerous articles about the Japanese automobile industry, including a 2001 article on Toyota for the Encyclopedia of Japanese Business.
