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It's been amazing to watch the frenzy around the Toyota quality problems. Obviously Ford & GM are major beneficiaries, but watching everyone piling on is something else. The quality community is recoiling, since Toyota has always been held up as the model for corporate quality behavior. Here are some of my personal observations/comments on the fiasco: - The shim being placed in accelerators is not a solution (ergo, corrective action). It is remedial action only, which doesn't really deal with causes. There is obviously (in my opinion) a design problem which has not been dealt with. And the brake override system, which should be done, would cover that up rather than address it directly. - Part of Toyota's problem is that in the US the legal folks are likely getting too much say in how the problem is handled. This is almost never a good idea in the long run. - Another significant part of the problem is simply culture. While Japanese culture has many positive aspects, there are equally many negative ones. Individuals are simply not considered when compared to the group, and in this case the group is a corporation with a lot of power. | 
