Quality

Quality Assurance Activities

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

Year
Month
Events
1937
September
Audit and Improvement Division established;
- Operational audit activities related to product quality and process quality started
1943
June
Audit and Improvement Committee established;
- Improvement activities involving dealers promoted
1949
December
Research for Quality Control methods started
1954
September
Vehicle performance inspection shifted to bench testing
1955
August
Material Failure and Processing Failure Task Force established;
- Rejection-reduction activities started
1960
November
1st Quality Month Event conducted
1962
July
Problem Registration System commenced;
- Field problem registration started
1964
January
Study of manufacturing process capacity index carried out
November
Quality Control Division renamed to Quality Division;
- Function Management System centered on quality assurance established
1965
April
Quality Assurance Rule established;
- Company wide Quality Assurance System established
1967
April
Prior check system for new product development started
1968
January
Reliability assurance activities strengthened
April
New-product quality assurance strengthened with the Quality Resident Engineer (QRE) activities
1970
May
Safety Related Parts Control Procedure established;
- Safety Related Parts Control System created
December
Technical analysis of warranty information computerized;
- Dynamic Assurance System (DAS) (warranty analysis system) started
1973
February
Investigation of overseas usage conditions conducted
September
Exhaust emissions inspection system of completed vehicles put into operation
1978
January
Warranty Claim Reduction Promotion Meeting held;
- Warranty Claim reduction activities implemented
1979
January
Shipping quality audit started
1980
January
Comprehensive activities for checking supplier quality started
1981
January
Production Trial Hand Over Meeting and Shipping Quality Confirmation Meeting started
1982
July
Shipping quality assurance activities strengthened in conjunction with merger between Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd
1986
March
Overseas Quality Section established and activities for shipping quality assurance of vehicles produced overseas started
1989
January
Customer Satisfaction (CS) Improvement Committee established;
- Company-wide CS improvement activities strengthened
1991
February
Evaluation toward securing reliability of local procured parts started
1997
July
Customer Delight (CD) Quality Improvement Committee established;
- Activities to ensure a level of product attractiveness that stays one step ahead started
2001
November
Overseas Early Detection, Early Resolution (EDER) Committee established;
- Reduction of customer problems through early detection and early resolution promoted
2003
May
Operation of the Total Quality Network System (TQ-NET), a new quality information system, started
2004
April
JD Power IQS 1-2 Finish Committee established;
- Activities toward ensuring an industry-leading quality level according to the JD Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) strengthened
2005
January
Customer Quality Engineering Division established;
- Introduces a global problem registration system from the customer's point of view and strengthens the quality system
April
Customer First (CF) Committee established;
- Activities to ensure that the Customer First principle is put into practice throughout the entire company in order to completely eliminate customer problems promoted
2010
March
Special Committee for Global Quality established;
- Company-wide fundamental review of all operations in order to strengthen correspondence considering customer's point of view, with all regional affiliates' participation, started

Special Committee for Global Quality established