Quality | Everywhere in everything

Customers determine the Quality. Our mission never ends.

Voices of customers

Our customers are the most important people to listen to when it comes to understanding what Toyota quality means. Their independent views and their experiences with their vehicles tell us whether our quality goals are being met and give us real-world information we need to make improvements and produce ever-better cars.

They have shared many remarkable stories about the reliability of our vehicles and the special appeal that makes them a trusted and valuable part of people’s lives. We are always ready to listen to the voices of our customers and we pay equal attention to criticism as to praise.

Meet Manfred Dvorak. He is a taxi driver in Austria, He has travelled over 1 million kilometers with his Toyota Prius. He says “the Prius is the ultimate sidekick”.

Meet the Crews, a family with an appetite for adventure that knows no boundaries... As part of their summer holidays they drive their Toyota Avensis from the UK to Turkey each year – a round trip of 5,000 miles.

Meet Bob Old and his dog, Murphy. He's covered more than 350,000 miles in his car so far - and describes the Prius as the "perfect fit..."

Voices of employees

Plant Employee Story

The people who work in our manufacturing plants around the world take great personal pride in what they do. Their commitment to doing the best job at every step is fundamental to ensuring we deliver the highest quality vehicles to our customers.

The story told here by a member of UK production team demonstrates how caring about quality creates a strong team and shows respect for our customers. As he explains: “Caring about quality is an essential attitude.”

“We want to make sure the customer has the best vehicle we can build.”
Bob Chapman, Manager Operations & John Cartwright, Quality Assurance, Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Limited

Approach to quality

Always Better Cars

We put quality at the heart of everything we do and, true to the principle of kaizen, we are always looking at how we can make improvements so we can be sure of delivering the best quality products and services to our customers.

Every member of our workforce understands the importance of never passing on poor quality to the next stage of the process. This means we can tackle any issues at the moment they occur, preventing more serious problems from developing. This approach extends all the way from research and development, through production to our after sales services. Worldwide our quality activities are led by chief quality officers in every region, helping us constantly monitor performance, learn and introduce improvements.

Quality history

We have been studying and implementing ways to improve quality ever since our business was founded.

As manufacturing methods have become more sophisticated, vehicles have become more complex and customer needs and expectations have developed worldwide, we have constantly improved our knowledge, processes and products to deliver better quality in everything we make and do.

With the benefit of almost a century of experience, we have built a global reputation that we are committed to maintaining and extending.

Since its founding, Toyota has steadfastly carried out quality assurance activities, resulting in top ratings from our customers.

Quality traditions

Many of the things we do today to ensure the highest quality in our operations and our products have been part of our way of working for many years – dating back even to the days before we began making vehicles. We are proud of these traditions, which we continue to develop and improve to meet new challenges.

The core principles behind our company’s quality assurance system, including ‘Customer First’, ‘Quality First’ and ‘Genchi Genbutsu (Go&See at the scene)’, were established when the company was founded. Since then, these principles have been passed on and inform every organizational level of today’s Toyota, from the shop floor to executive management.

Toyota's approach to quality is unique and has been developed over decades.

**High Quality Starts with the Customer** When Japan introduced a vehicle recall system in 1969, we used a series of high-profile newspaper advertisement features to show how customers are our first concern in ensuring quality in every part of our business, a commitment that remains true today.

**The Evolution of Toyota’s Quality Assurance System** The quality assurance systems we use today have been developed from methods used more than a century ago by the original Toyoda family weaving business. In modern times our Total Quality Control process has helped us continuously improve the quality and reliability of our vehicles.

**Ask ‘Why’ Five Times About Every Matter** Problems give us opportunities to make improvements and ensure good quality, so it is important to find out the root cause when something goes wrong, so that it can be put right and prevented from happening again.

Designing Quality

Building-in the highest quality into our vehicles already starts from the designing phase.

Every new model undergoes rigorous testing, using computer modelling, laboratory tests and thousands of kilometres of real-world driving. When it comes to product development, we scrutinise every detail to look for potential problems and to share knowledge and experience among our engineering teams.

Our strict standards and well-established processes enable us to build the foundation for the quality built-in at every stage.

Producing Quality

Our commitment to building vehicles of the highest quality requires precision production processes and a skilled and dedicated workforce.

We invest in manufacturing and training so that we have the right methods and people to ensure our products meet our demanding standards.

Quality assurance teams carry out thousands of checks on every vehicle that comes off the line. Quality is at the heart of our training programmes, both the apprenticeships we offer young people and the skills development provided for our established workforce.

Assuring Quality

We are committed to delivering the highest quality and providing complete customer satisfaction by constantly improving our products and services.

We have designed effective procedures so that when a customer encounters a problem, we can assess the issue and put things right, with the least inconvenience for our customers.

Our "customer first" philosophy is a part of our Toyota DNA and means we always listen to what our customers have to say and use their opinions and experiences to make improvements.

Quality is everywhere, in everything

Our approach to quality is based on the philosophy of Jikotei Kanketsu, meaning “to ensure that no defects occur at the lines and that defects are never passed on to the next process”. We aim for “zero defect” in all production processes. This concept can be seen in the Toyota Production System, in which every member of the workforce takes ownership for the quality of his job.

This means anyone who identifies a problem in a part or process can raise an alert, potentially even stopping a production line so that a prompt solution can be found and applied. That results in consistent quality through every stage of every process.