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3 Secrets Ingredients to Toyota’s Legendary Reliability

He made himself the darling of the American driver by building cars, trucks, and SUVs that are among the most reliable available. In fact, Toyota just won. But don’t think Toyota earned this reputation for legendary reliability by accident. Here are three secret ingredients in Toyota’s recipe for legendary reliability.

Toyota Road

toyota logo | Kevin Appel/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

One of Toyota’s main differences is that it codified its corporate philosophy in “The Toyota Way” in 2001. This manual insists on two things: respect for human resources and a philosophy of continuous improvement. Although this is more a recipe than an ingredient, Toyota’s transparency is one of the keys to the company’s success and even reliability.

They are most interested in quarterly earnings. But Toyota stuck to its guns.

The first principle is “Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.” But that philosophy boils down to the actual cars Toyota makes. Specifically, the sixth principle: “Use only reliable, rigorously tested technology that serves your people and processes.”

This is why Toyota has used legendary–and perfected–like engines for decades. But there may also be downsides to this philosophy. This is also why there are still few Toyota electric cars out there, and the company is still improving its hybrid technology.

The technology Toyota uses in its cars is as important as its goals for the cars it designs. Steering the way from Toyota, this automaker is focusing less on exciting, high-performance cars, and more on reliable vehicles that offer a low cost of ownership because they’re fuel efficient and easy to repair.

Jidoka is a component of Toyota reliability

Toyota engineers unveil the 30th Anniversary Special Edition of the Land Cruiser, renowned for its reliability.
30th Anniversary Land Cruiser | Yoshikazu Tsunoe/AFP via Getty Images

Fifth principle in Toyota Road He is Jidoka. “Build a culture of stopping to fix issues, to get the quality right the first time.”

What does this mean in practice? When designing a new part, Toyota engineers first build it by hand. In fact, they must manually perfect the new part before designing a process to automate its production. The result is highly reliable components that Toyota uses across as many vehicles as possible.

Toyota doesn’t limit this practical philosophy to its engineering. In fact, the automaker installs a traditional punched-card assembly line at every plant. Why? Workers will train on these more practical machines before graduating to modern computer-powered machines – according to the . The result is higher quality Toyota components and guaranteed reliability.

Kaizen is another aspect of Toyota reliability

A Toyota factory worker inspects the car for the legendary company's reliability.
Toyota Factory Worker | Tomohiro Ohsumi via Getty Images

Finally, Toyota strives to continually improve the assembly process. This is so important to the company that it is the second principle in it Toyota Road.

In practical terms, Kiazen means that any worker can stop production at any time if they have an idea to improve the production process. And Kaizen isn’t just a slogan, it’s actually happening. While Ford is discontinuing the F-150 line an average of twice each week, Toyota’s 2000 lines may be discontinuing 2000 times per week.

Each of these stations is someone on the front lines trying to hone Toyota’s operation. This improves the process and also gives the workers a sense of ownership for the vehicles they are making. The result is higher quality Toyota components with better reliability, at a lower cost.

what do you think? Let us know if you think Toyota Road Works and Toyota vehicles you own have proven reliable in the comments below.

Next, read why there isn’t yet or watch Donut Media’s discussion of Toyota reliability in the video below:

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