Toyota Motor Corporation announced on the 9th that it has submitted measures to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to prevent the recurrence of fraudulent certification of “type designation” required for mass production of cars. The measures will clarify the work judgment and responsibility of the certification work, which has been subjective to personal factors, establish a system to stop and improve when irregularities such as unreasonable schedules or excessive work loads are found, and strengthen internal audits by appointing new “in-house examiners” who will be present during certification tests.

On the same day, Toyota President Tsuneji Sato, who responded to a press conference, said about the certification fraud, “There were many issues both in management and in the field. We will take the lead in preventing a recurrence and work together as a company.” On July 31, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism issued a “corrective order” to the company, ordering it to make fundamental improvements and requesting that it report measures to prevent a recurrence within one month.

The main preventative measures are to introduce and thoroughly implement the “Kaizen” method of the Toyota Production System, which makes it easier to find abnormalities in work and stops work and corrects it immediately when a problem occurs, into certification work. To that end, unified rules for creating “certification work regulations” will be established to prevent discrepancies between regulations and leaving work decisions to the field.

In addition, the company will clarify the roles and authority of management members, such as the Chief Technology Officer, Global Chief Quality Officer, and New Vehicle Development Officer, in the certification process, and will restructure its business management structure by, for example, setting indicators for development progress and its impact on certification.

Furthermore, a system will be put in place to properly store the results of certification tests and the basis for technical judgments. This measure is in response to the fact that Toyota was unable to detect new irregularities in its internal investigations, but the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s investigation uncovered new irregularities. Sato said, “The management system was insufficient in terms of whether evidence (the basis for test results) was kept in a form that was easy for a third party to understand, and whether it was kept systematically.”

On the other hand, Sato said, “We need to stop the bleeding when it comes to new certification projects,” and revealed his intention to implement short-term measures to create spare capacity for certification work, such as increasing the number of staff directly responsible for certification by about 10% from the current 400 people.

The certification fraud has led to the suspension of production of three models, including the Yaris Cross, affecting 30,000 vehicles, and delays in obtaining new certifications have led to the postponement of the release of the new Crown Estate, disrupting the business of parts suppliers and dealers. Toyota is being asked to quickly take measures to prevent a recurrence and normalize its business. (Ikeda Noboru)