Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda addressed a press conference stating that the company may have grown too fast too soon neglecting proper training of its employees to ensure that Toyota quality is always under the check. "Up to now, we had been saying that the rapid expansion was in response to customer needs -- that it was inevitable," he said. However, in further admittance he stated that "With the rapid expansion of production, prehaps we were not able to develop appropriate engineering skills and human resources. The basic rule of the Toyota Production System is to only build as many cars as there is demand for, and we ourselves broke that rule."
He also admitted that the rapid expansion of the company in last decade may have been due to sales expansion and not because of actual demand.
Toyota attends Congressional meetings in US next week where Toyoda will be absent. He stated that he needs to look after more prominent issues pertaining to quality of the cars. He also affirmed his faith and trust on Toyota US executives and management that they will be able to face the US Congress aptly and with confidence.
