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Shoichiro quickly recognized that Toyota's cars and trucks were not of the quality foreign consumers were looking for. Americans would not buy what many of them saw as underpowered, unattractive, and undependable vehicles. Toyota would have to improve its entire production process, but doing so was easier said than done. While the company talked about improving quality control, it had little contact with American experts on the matter, and its workers were still inexperienced in this area.

Shoichiro saw a solution: Quality-control operations needed to be integrated into every step of production. They had to be systematic and a part of every Toyota department and operation. In the early 1960s, he prevailed upon Eiji and Ishida to implement a total quality control program. The board agreed, and Shoichiro set the goal of having a program in operation by 1964. He brought in experts, but the company's workers complained and revolted. Production expert Taiichi Ohno felt that Shoichiro was wasting his time and Toyota's money. Within a year, though, Shoichiro's critics knew he had been right. The number of defects in Toyota cars fell by half. Ohno discovered that quality control actually enhanced his lean, just-in-time assembly-line process. Toyota was on its way to global competitiveness, and Shoichiro, more than any other individual, was responsible.