Alfa Romeo Sets Lexus As Quality Benchmark

[Motor]

Alfa Romeo Sets Lexus As Quality Benchmark For New Products

While BMW has been the overall benchmark for Alfa Romeo in the Stellantis era, Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato says Lexus is now the quality benchmark.

www.motor1.com

 

[mikeavelli]

Ambitious target but i’m glad he recognizes Lexus. Good luck to them since they make some great cars. Just need to fix the quality and reliability side.

 

[Gecko]

lol

 

[ssun30]

American car makers have been trying to replicate TMC quality since 1990?
Good luck with that.

 

[Sulu]

American car makers have been trying to replicate TMC quality since 1990?
Good luck with that.

It is closer to 40 years than 30 years. The GM-Toyota joint venture NUMMI plant opened in 1984. GM hoped to learn Toyota's secret sauce to building high-quality small cars.

 

[NXracer]

I wonder if all the other brands replicated the Toyota secret sauce, would they end up loosing their brand identity and what would Toyota's USP be.
Not saying reliability is a bad thing.

 

[F1 Silver Arrows]

I giggled like an idiot when I saw the headline.

They make really badass cars in terms of handling, but otherwise? Good luck LOL.

 

[maiaramdan]

I really love Alfas

 

[ssun30]

It's not hard to build Toyota quality cars - you just dial up the rejection threshold. The hard part is doing it economically. I actually expect Alfa Romeo to achieve Lexus quality, and then go bankrupt and axed by FCA in a year or two. Toyota quality does not just happen in the plant. It's built into the entire supply chain.

 

[Sulu]

It's not hard to build Toyota quality cars - you just dial up the rejection threshold. The hard part is doing it economically. I actually expect Alfa Romeo to achieve Lexus quality, and then go bankrupt and axed by FCA in a year or two. Toyota quality does not just happen in the plant. It's built into the entire supply chain.

Building high-quality cars cannot just be done on the final assembly line; it must be a vertically-oriented activity, from bottom to top, and beginning to end. It has to involve the suppliers. This is where the western world automakers miss out; they still have not come to good terms with their suppliers.

The Japanese automakers follow American Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his 14 points for total quality management (they consider Dr. Deming to be the father of quality). The 4th point states "End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust". The Japanese automakers have learned to work closely with their suppliers rather than playing one off against another to get the lowest cost. The western automakers still go shopping for lowest cost which may actually work out to cost more in the long run.

 

[ssun30]

Building high-quality cars cannot just be done on the final assembly line; it must be a vertically-oriented activity, from bottom to top, and beginning to end. It has to involve the suppliers. This is where the western world automakers miss out; they still have not come to good terms with their suppliers.

The Japanese automakers follow American Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his 14 points for total quality management (they consider Dr. Deming to be the father of quality). The 4th point states "End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust". The Japanese automakers have learned to work closely with their suppliers rather than playing one off against another to get the lowest cost. The western automakers still go shopping for lowest cost which may actually work out to cost more in the long run.

I once entertained the idea of getting into business with Toyota's supply chain. A business partner at Geely said "don't think about it".

Toyota has some ridiculous base yield requirements for its suppliers. Not just that, but they also enforce "Kaizen" on its suppliers too: they need to demonstrate consistent improvements in yield over time. Their bid process is more of a formality since they will go with in-house or closely tied suppliers anyway.

 

[NXracer]

Building high-quality cars cannot just be done on the final assembly line; it must be a vertically-oriented activity, from bottom to top, and beginning to end. It has to involve the suppliers. This is where the western world automakers miss out; they still have not come to good terms with their suppliers.

The Japanese automakers follow American Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his 14 points for total quality management (they consider Dr. Deming to be the father of quality). The 4th point states "End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust". The Japanese automakers have learned to work closely with their suppliers rather than playing one off against another to get the lowest cost. The western automakers still go shopping for lowest cost which may actually work out to cost more in the long run.

I thought they just buy out their suppliers or have a significant partner stake to basically internally control the company without slapping a Toyota badge on the front door?

 

[carguy420]

There's no secret sauce to building high quality cars lol, maybe if some of these car manufacturers aren't so obsessed with cutting corners their products won't have such crap quality.

 

[CRSKTN]

🤦‍♂️

How Toyota does what they do… is a whole deep rabbit hole.

 

[Sulu]

There's no secret sauce to building high quality cars lol, maybe if some of these car manufacturers aren't so obsessed with cutting corners their products won't have such crap quality.

Yes, like what GM did with those bad ignition switches. In order to save a few cents on each one, GM bought substandard ones from suppliers.

 

[NXracer]

interestingly parent company Stellantis is expanding their TMC ties for a LCV?

 

[Sulu]

interestingly parent company Stellantis is expanding their TMC ties for a LCV?

Stellantis already produces electric light commercial vehicles (LCV), and Toyota already sells badge-engineered versions of Stellantis' compact and mid-size vans, in both ICE and EV variants. In this new agreement, Stellantis will provide Toyota with a large electrified van (a variant of the Ram ProMaster Cargo Van / Fiat Ducato) for sale in Europe.

Europe: Stellantis And Toyota Expand Partnership On Commercial Vans

Stellantis and Toyota Motor Europe announced a new agreement on large-size commercial vans (conventional and electric) for the European market.

insideevs.com

Stellantis and Toyota Motor Europe announced a new agreement on large-size commercial vans (conventional and electric) for the European market, which essentially is an expansion of the existing partnership on compact and mid-size vans.

Under the agreement, Stellantis will supply Toyota with the new large-size commercial van for sale in Europe under the Toyota brand, just like in the case of compact- and mid-size models (respectively: Toyota Proace since 2012 and Toyota Proace City since 2019).

Nothing is known about the new large-size van (ICE and BEV), scheduled for market launch in mid-2024, besides two confirmed Stellantis manufacturing locations: Gliwice, Poland and Atessa, Italy.

The move is pretty important also for Stellantis, which developed two different solutions (Fiat E-Ducato vs Peugeot e-Boxer/Citroen e-Jumper/Opel Movano/Vauxhall Movano) before FCA merged with PSA. The large-size van has to be consolidated into the next-generation unified model for the entire group to make business sense.

 

[NXracer]

Is their a reason Toyota does not want to bring in their own HiAce to these markets?

 

[Will1991]

They would be much more expensive to comply with EU regulations, making it much more expensive... Don't know if there's enough market to make it profitable.

In EU, I might be mistaken but I don't remember any LCV being sold without any rebadge version for another brand or made in partnership.

 

[Sulu]

Light commercial vehicles seem to be an important category in Europe with all brands offering them in their lineups. Yet, LCVs do not seem to be lucrative enough, as there are few automakers producing the full lineup of small, medium and large LCVs. Ford produces a full lineup, as does Renault and now Stellantis.

But, surprisingly, VW no longer produces a full lineup, selling a re-badged MB Sprinter as its large van. Also, MB does not produce a small van, selling a re-badged Renault Kangoo as its small van.

The Europeans seem to be LCV experts, especially of the large vans; in North America, GM is the lone holdout without a European-designed unibody large van.

In light of this, I guess it is not surprising that Toyota has extended its agreement with PSA Group (Peugeot & Citroën) -- and now Stellantis -- to sell re-badged LCVs (Toyota ProAce City (small) in ICE and EV versions, Toyota ProAce (medium) in ICE and EV versions, and (I assume) re-badged Fiat Ducato (large) in EV version). It must be so much easier for Toyota to cooperate with a European automaker for LCVs (read cheaper and so more profitable) than to try to export something from Japan.