How did a single part made by a single supplier screw the world's biggest automaker?
 

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One word.

Outsourcing.

SOunds to me like this CTS Corp is the same CTS that makes potentiometers for guitars...

CTS Corporation - EC, Sensors & Actuators, EMS!

Oh No! Next thing will be guitars that are out of control. "I turned the knob to 5, but it went to 11 and wouldn't come back down!!!

Clearly third world made outsourced junk. Company is based in Indiana. Product manufactured in Canada. What kind of cheap third world countries are we running here?


The stuff went to China where Ford installs it in trucks for sale in the Asian market. Ford's recalling the whole batch. Somewhere Sniper's Chinese doppelganger is complaining about cheap POS component parts from North America.

One word.... Lawyers

IMO, Toyota did not manage the supplier correctly. It appears from the Toyota statement in Lube's OP that two different materials were used in the manufacture of the pedals.

Did the supplier test both materials?
Did Toyota test pedals made with both materials?
Did Toyota specify the material to be used or did they leave it up to the supplier?
Did the supplier inform Toyota about the change in material or did they just start shipping without telling Toyota?
Does the supplier have an ISO or similar requirement that disallows changing the material without informing the customer?
Did Toyota perform an audit of the supplier's facility to confirm proper testing and safeguards are in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening?
Etc, etc., etc.

There's a lot we don't know, but clearly there was a breakdown between Toyota and supplier.

So now Toyota is blaming a supplier?

Its funny how everyone is bashing a company that has taken such extreme action such as ceasing sales and shutting down assembly lines to openly correct a problem. There is no way any of the American car companies would ever take the action Toyota has. There is a reason the great majority of the American car companies are absolute failures at this point, lack of leadership, vision, and build quality. That said they have vast potential and a labor force that can easily build quality cars, just come up with one that doesn't suck and mix in proper quality control and leadership. Oh by the way its too bad Toyota has been forced to build cars and parts in the US in order to be competitive (thanks government) because they seem to be the scourge of Toyotas recent problems- Tacoma frames were (outsourced) to Dana corp. Made in the USA.

This is just Toyota's excuse to shut down production for a while and screw the hard-working, honest Union employees who make the auto industries in America the envy of the world.

Aren't ALL guitar knobs stuck at 11?

What good does it do them to screw the Union guys? Also what about all the non union people like sales people, lot guys, sales managers, franchise owners,. Since according to you they are out to screw the union do they want to do that at the expense of so many others?

Should this text be green? ;)

Toyota manufacturing plants are, on the whole, non-union. Sure, Toyota stands to lose billions and their reputation, just to screw the non-existent union members. Right. :rolleyes: Try another theory.

As serious as this "defect" might be, if the same thing happened on a door hinge, it would be a simple recall and fix. No biggie.

Anyone familiar with the plastic bushings in a Porsche pedal assembly and how they deteriorate when the master cylinder leaks BF? Different symptom, but the consequences could have been different as well.

The Toyota (and all manufacturers') throttle-by-wire pedal assembly contains a potentiometer that provides feedback to the ECU as to throttle pedal position. The ECU then signals a servo motor in the throttle motor assembly to open and close the intake throttle valve according to driver input and other operating condition parameters (cold start, AC idle, etc.). Is it the pedal assembly, the throttle motor assembly or ????

It could just be a matter of millimeters. The pedal assembly might have an undersized pivot bushing (if at all) that prematurely wears and binds normal movement, or perhaps heat, bent linkage, crack or moisture or ? in the housing produces the same effect. Or, Toyota could be fishing for more time to research/repair a more complex fix - a random error code in the ECU ROM (read only memory) programmed at the factory. That's been previously speculated. One theory: If the CTS units were the real culprit, they could have ramped up prior to this and replaced them with the functionally equivalent Denso-made version and avoided all the fanfare and neg. press.

OTOH, customers expect a new vehicle to work as designed despite the fact vehicle electronics are as complex as they are. The typical modern vehicle can have upwards of 20 ECUs and a multitude of sensors and actuators buried within the vehicle chassis. What happens 15 years down the line is usually not the worry of the manufacturer.

I wonder who's to blame when an accident avoidance sensor (Lexus, MB and others) fails to prevent a collision? No wonder the price to drive is going up.

Sherwood

This sort of thing would have never happened if Toyota had used the hard-working, honest Union employees who make the auto industries in America the envy of the world.

Fixed.

Bingo. Usually it's easier to just build the parts yourself. Typically outsourcing looks good on paper.......and that's where it stops. I've seen it in person numerous times.

Sadly, suppliers make changes all the time. some time they get caught and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they tell the customer ahead of time, sometimes they don't.

True story: A former employer of mine used a wax to polish their product. The wax was from a quality supplier and while not specifically made for our use, the formulation worked better than just about everything else on the market.

In their supply contract, they were required to notify us of any changes to the product (so we could verify the product was still ok).

At one point, we suddenly were unable to meet our product specifications. Once the problem was apparent, an initial review of the products and processes used in the production showed no apparent changes before and after the date of the problems.

An investigation (taking 3 months) led us to finally figuring out it was the wax. When we challeneged the wax maker, the inital response was nothing changed. When we showed hm the data, he finally admitted they made a change at precisely the lot number used where the problem began. His defense, "We were improving the product and did not think such a minor change would matter." This line of reasoning cost us millions in lost sales and production and forensic investigation.

Sound familiar?

Do I have to remind you that US car manufacturers have had issues with vehicle safety too? Let's see: Ford Pinto gas tank, GM P/U gas tank, Ford SUV rollovers, sub-par build quality, etc. The fact that they were built by union workers may or may not be independent of the cause or fault.

Waving the flag is fine, but let's not do it blindly.

Sherwood

Considering the sophistication of processes and materials it would be imposable to be that vertically integrated. There are companies that are experts at injection molding while others rapid prototyping and still others metallurgy. Today, there are no companies capable of that sort of vast technical prowess.

The problem was that the procurement specification was not written tight enough...

The company I work used to be, a decade or two ago. Outsourcing has destroyed all of that. We have now lost that broad range of technical prowess.

If a manufacturer has the technical knowledge to write the procurement spec tight enough, it's only because they have retained that prowess by staying in that area of manufacturing. Kind of a "catch 22" - if they are expert enough to write the spec, they are expert enough to build the part. If they have lost the expertise to build the part, they have also lost the expertise to write the spec.