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Akio Toyoda Addresses Quality Issues in Open Letter

It’s not easy being the president of Toyota Motor Co. these days, as the Japanese manufacturer is currently experiencing some serious problems with its public image. Since it has announced the accelerator pedal related recall, the car manufacturer had to take another hit with the Prius breaking issues. Needless to say, these two worldwide recalls have had a serious impact on Toyota’s image.

In an attempt to reestablish trust in the brand, Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda wrote an open letter published in the Washington Post. The letter apologizes for the misfortunate problems and presents Toyota’s plan to repair its public image.

“First, I have launched a top-to-bottom review of our global operations to ensure that problems of this magnitude do not happen again and that we not only meet but exceed the high safety standards that have defined our long history. As part of this, we will establish an Automotive Center of Quality Excellence in the United States, where a team of our top engineers will focus on strengthening our quality management and quality control across North America,” said Akio Toyoda.

“Second, to ensure that our quality-control operations are in line with best industry practices, we will ask a blue-ribbon safety advisory group composed of respected outside experts in quality management to independently review our operations and make sure that we have eliminated any deficiencies in our processes. The findings of these experts will be made available to the public, as will Toyota's responses to these findings.”

“Third, we fully understand that we need to more aggressively investigate complaints we hear directly from consumers and move more quickly to address any safety issues we identify. That is what we are doing by addressing customer concerns about the Prius and Lexus HS250h anti-lock brake systems,”
he added.

Though Toyota’s problems won’t end soon, the Japanese manufacturer seems committed to fixing everything. For Akio Toyoda’s complete letter check out the Washington Post.
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