Why are Toyota engines so reliable?

1. Customer First

Toyota vehicles are reliable because the company has a customer-first approach to business.

Many businesses generally have a profit-focused approach or a shareholder-focused approach to business.

They want to ensure that the company generates enough profits to appease its shareholders.

That means they tend to focus on features that will attract customers to their vehicles rather than ensuring that their customers remain loyal to them.

They’re looking to entice with flashy new features.

Toyota doesn’t follow this approach.

They’re more interested in ensuring that their customers are happy with the vehicles that they make.

Toyota knows that its customers shop from them because they know that they’re getting a reliable vehicle.

They know that they’re going to buy a vehicle that they can hold onto for years to come.

Even if this means that Toyota may have fewer repeat customers since their vehicles last longer, Toyota still wants to ensure its customers are happy.

This also means that they use this approach when designing and engineering a vehicle.

They put themselves in the shoes of their customers.

Then they determine whether certain features are actually needed or if they just take up space.

By looking at their vehicles from their customers’ perspectives, Toyota can design the type of vehicle that customers actually want.

Their customers typically want a vehicle that will last a long time and will require only a few trips to the repair shop beyond regular maintenance visits.

Toyota is reliable because they know their customers want reliable vehicles.

2. Continuous Improvement

Toyota vehicles are reliable because Toyota has a policy of continuous improvement.

This is different from some vehicle makers.

Other vehicle makers may simply design and engineer a vehicle, then consider the project finished.

If they need to improve on the design, then they’ll typically release a new model.

These carmakers may end up making the exact same vehicle except for one detail or one new feature.

Toyota doesn’t quite do that.

They prefer to release a model and then not release another until there’s a reason to do so.

Instead, they focus on continuous improvement while designing a vehicle in the first place.

They’ll look at the vehicle from different perspectives and determine whether there’s any way to improve it.

If there is, then the vehicle doesn’t enter the engineering phase until they’ve designed it to its best potential.

3. Complete Participation

Toyota is also reliable because of its use of complete participation.

At other vehicle manufacturing factories, the workers simply put the parts together, then move them to the next checkpoint.

While there’s some quality control throughout the process, they don’t quite match the extensive control that Toyota uses.

Toyota emphasizes complete participation among its workers.

This means that it encourages every single worker to give feedback on the design and engineering of their vehicles.

Even a salesperson can give feedback.

Toyota has implemented a system that makes it easy for employees to submit ideas or feedback.

The company then goes over those notes and determines if certain ideas are worth pursuing.

In this case, everyone has a voice in the company.

While not every voice gets the final say, Toyota does allow them to make the executives aware of certain aspects of the business.