Is intense competitive pressure causing manufacturers to rush product development, and therefore sacrifice quality?

Well, the short is – it appears so. And, certainly in the case of Toyota, they’ve clearly admitted as much. In their rush to become number one, the ‘Toyota Way’ did veer off course. But it’s not as simple as that. As cars become more advanced, and parts become increasingly intricate, quality control takes on a whole new meaning. As complexity increases, the harder it becomes to anticipate and test how a component – or different parts within a single component – will fare over the life of the vehicle.

Add to that the fact that several parts are now shared not only within different model lines of a single manufacturer, but, in many cases, across different manufacturers as well – and it gives you some sense of how a seemingly small problem can get magnified to take on epic proportions. Take, for instance, the latest 5 series BMW. It reportedly shares 70% of its components with its larger sibling, the 7 series. Now, if I were in a market for a 5 series, that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. And, for BMW, it means economies of scale, and cost saving in product development as well. On the flip side, however, if a problem arises with one of those components at a future date – said problem will affect a far greater number of vehicles than it’s likely to have in the past, which is what we’re seeing at Toyota as well.