Toyota Motor has introduced a five-stage internal qualification system for maintaining quality at vehicle certification test sites and developing related human resources, as part of efforts to prevent any recurrence of irregularities in tests to obtain type approval needed for mass production.
The leading Japanese automaker unveiled the move in a progress report on its recurrence prevention measures submitted to the transport ministry on Tuesday.
"We will work (on preventing test fraud) with firm determination as improvement is an endless process," said Shinji Miyamoto, chief officer of Toyota's Customer First Promotion Group who is responsible for quality assurance.
Under the qualification system, Toyota will provide its employees with opportunities to learn knowledge, skills and laws related to type approval certification through education programs at each stage. The firm hopes that these programs will help improve in-house communication and raise awareness of recurrence prevention, with the aim of nurturing workers who hold the highest level of qualification within about three years of the system's introduction.
Toyota's certification irregularities came to light in June 2024. The company received a corrective order from the transport ministry in July that year and submitted recurrence prevention measures in the following month.
Toyota is obliged to report on the implementation status of the measures every quarter, with the fourth report handed in on Tuesday.
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