Word: systemic
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...There was more to come. In early February, Toyota managed to back over any remaining political goodwill it had when it voluntarily recalled more than 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars - this time, to update software in the antilock brake system that could cause a glitch if the car traveled over a bumpy surface. The Lexus is Toyota's top-selling luxury model - bad enough - but the Prius is its darling, a car that demonstrated the company's ability to solve technical issues that kept other automakers from fielding gas-electric hybrids, at the same time clinching Toyota...
...Little Company That Could So what happened? What went awry at the car company whose widely admired Toyota Production System (TPS) had made it the paragon of the art of manufacturing...
...shift merely whacking four bolts to secure the front seat as each car moves down the line. Continuous improvement constantly squeezes excess labor and material out of the manufacturing process: people and parts meet at the optimal moment. Kaizen is also about spreading what you've learned throughout the system. And then repeating it. It's the reason, for instance, that when Toyota assumed full control of the New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif., which it had co-owned with GM, it got way more productivity and quality out of it than GM could with essentially the same...
...however, offer any specific solutions. On Tuesday, Toyoda finally announced that the company determined the brakes of the Prius and other hybrid models are prone to malfunction for a split second on frozen and slippery surfaces, but can be fixed by reinstalling the software that runs the braking system, a relatively simple procedure which takes 30 to 40 minutes...
...Greeks agreeing that painful measures are necessary to slash the deficit, many of the street protesters said they did not believe the government claims that it had run out of money. Others argued that it was the rich who should pay. "It's a crisis caused by the capitalist system," said Sissy Vovou, a 60-year-old pensioner. "Those who should pay are the capitalists, not the working classes...