Maruti and the A-Star

I agree with venky. Nice and interesting points.

:)

Though the quality concepts remain the same, the ecosystem of manufacturing has changed dramatically since they have been formulated. The unfortunate part is that companies have been complacent in adapting these concepts to the modern environment. In this example of cars, we cannot even begin to imagine the number of hands, robots and companies that have toiled into finishing a car that we can walk away with by conveniently handing over a couple of cheque leaves. Right from the nuts and bolts to the most intricate engine parts, the companies who participate in the entire outsourcing process is mind bogling. In this complex ecosystem, the concepts have to be adapted to the present conditions than merely "going by the book". It is easier to play the blame game in such a scenario - no doubt when the smoke starts to clear Toyota will attempt to do some serious damage control by possibly inferring that the "problem" had more to do with the CTS (the gas pedal maker) manufacturing process than the "Toyota" design process. But companies must realize that quality is not to be viewed in isolation of their respective process alone, but as a cohesive whole. Even now, these companies are acting headstrong, immediately releasing press reports that "this incident will not have any material impact" on their future. But they seem to have forgotten the golden adage - it takes only a small leak to sink a big ship, given enough time....lets hope these corporations wake up before that because (sadly) the sufferer is the one who handed over the cheque leaves.

The real pain goes in to the people who put in their hard earned money only to find that the vehicle they have purchased has a faulty behaviour that can turn deadly. This creates a fear among the people who own even the top brands such as toyota,honda. The hidden fact is that though some problems has been identified and declared by the car manufactures, there could be even more issues in the existing vehicles that can lead to discomfort to the people using it.

Vehicle manufactures should focus more on quality of the vehicle being delivered to the client. The simple mechanisms should not be too much complicated that can read to future problems with the vehicles. The main features of a vehicle such as brake,acceleration,fuel,steering should be checked for continuous usage for say 1 year before the model is released to the public.

Recall of vehicles is a global phenomenon until now - this being embraced in India shows the rise in level of customer expectations at one end and the manufacturers treating the indian market as an important and potential one. Quality consicousness and costs go hand in hand and developing a manufacturing practice with sustainable profits was the niche area in which Japanese companies are famous for - this showing a downward trend in recent times is serious issue which needs to be addressed