Japanese Quality

 

On a recent trip to Nashville, my Toyota Venza (2015) is not a small vehicle nor is it a large SUV, but still large enough to feel comfortable and protected.  I get about 25/26 miles per gallon which is fine but not as good as the 33/34 miles per gallon I got with my Toyota Camry.

I switched from American made vehicles to Japanese made vehicles in the mid 1980s when I discovered that Japanese vehicles were BETTER MADE.  Simply stated, Japanese vehicles are made based upon 103 out-of-spec parts per million manufactured as opposed to American made vehicles based upon 2600 out-of-spec parts per million manufactured.

NOW...  I am confident (hopefully?) that American vehicles have improved since the 1980s but I, personally, do not want to take the chance or spend MY MONEY on vehicles that MIGHT BE BETTER today.

How do I know this?

In the 1980s, I was trained by the same man (Dr. Edwards W. Deming) who trained the Japanese after WWII as to how to manufacture quality products.  Deming offered his services to American manufacturers, and they DECLINED HIS OFFER because they were too busy supplying the rest of the world with products.

The concept is simple...  You reduce the variation systematically in the process so that you have an ever-increasing quality product.  Variation in ALL PROCESSES comes from:

1. Manpower
2. Methods - how we do things
3. Machines
4. Raw Materials
5. Environment - too hot or too cold and/or morale

You remove the variation by scientifically collecting data and statistically analyzing that data so that the process can be changed to eliminate that variation from happening again.

This reduction of variation process takes time and some money on the front end, but you save five times (or more) that amount of money on the back end.

American Leaders did not trust that to be true and avoided becoming involved.  Japanese leaders had been defeated and had no choice but to listen to what America wanted them to do.

It was an easy decision for me to make, especially since I was spending my money on a vehicle.  Once I switched to Toyota, I never switched back and I have never been disappointed.