There’s a certain poetry in an automotive brand repeatedly winning a dependability study.

It shows dependability in its dependability. It’s meta-dependable.

The brand in question is Lexus, which, with its top spot in J.D. Power’s 2019 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, has claimed supremacy in these rankings for eight years in a row.

People rarely do anything for eight years straight these days, it seems, let alone while consistently being the best at it.

In the 2019 study, owners of three-year-old Lexus cars and SUVs reported experiencing 106 problems per 100 vehicles over the previous 12 months. In these 2016-model-year units, that scores 30 points higher than the industry average, and a full 143 points above Fiat, the worst-performing brand, at 249 reported issues per 100.

In these same results, the Lexus ES is ranked as the most reliable compact premium car, and the Lexus GX is tops in the mid-size premium SUV category.

Meanwhile, Consumer Reports named Lexus the most reliable brand in its 2019 rankings, and the Lexus GS mid-size sedan, NX compact SUV and aforementioned GX are all listed in the publication’s top 10 most reliable vehicles of 2020. Lexus has swapped places with Toyota for the top spot in this ranking for the past seven years.

That all adequately makes the point, but there’s more: J.D. Power also ranks automotive assembly facilities, and in 2019 Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada took home the Platinum Plant Quality Award. This is only tangentially related to Lexus: this award is for the Cambridge North plant, which currently builds the Toyota RAV4. It’s Cambridge South that builds the Lexus RX, and that facility received a bronze award last year. However, it’s previously won multiple gold awards, and any recognition in this ranking is considered an achievement.

And, in fact, it’s a testament to TMMC that Lexus vehicles are built in Cambridge in the first place: it was the first assembly plant outside of Japan to be trusted with building Lexus vehicles when it acquired RX production in 2003.

The latter statement begins to shed light on why the brand delivers so consistently on dependability: the Lexus luxury arm is a closely guarded treasure as far as parent company Toyota is concerned. The full picture, however, carries much more nuance.

When he begins to explain, Steven MacNeil, general manager of Lexus manufacturing at TMMC, makes reference to the Japanese term monozukuri. It’s a term that’s difficult to translate: while its literal meaning is “the making of things,” in its native language the term implies a level of care and intention for excellence that’s infused into processes, a dedication to skill and pride in the end product without regard to the impact on a company’s bottom line.

“This is, basically, perceived value by the customer that adds to the betterment of society or the experience that people enjoy driving their vehicles,” MacNeil told Driving.ca. “Based on this fundamental principle, the starting point is we have a very well-defined product specification that links directly to what the customer expects from the Lexus brand and, through that, the Lexus experience.”

While MacNeil’s views are understandably centred largely on Lexus production in Canada, the principles he identifies spell out how Lexus maintains its consistency while making steady and calculated gains, several of which he says are applied in Lexus manufacturing facilities all over the world.

Attention to detail

Pride in craftsmanship, particularly where monozukuri is concerned, means taking the time to ensure that details are not glossed over. Sweating the small stuff matters, as does communicating its importance, according to MacNeil.

“We’ve been told before we’re kind of OCD when it comes to not only the design but in our preparation and then our efficiency and quality as we go into mass production,” he said. “Whether that’s making sure our environment is clean so no dust gets into the engines or whether we’re torqueing to the exact specification for every bolt, our motivation is to do everything to that specification to meet the customer requirement.”

Intense training

Ensuring that new staff members can work to exacting specifications requires high standards of training, MacNeil said.

“We send them to fundamental skill modules – like tightening or connectors or hose routing or painting, whatever the skill is – and they practice until they are proficient,” he explained. “Then, we send them line side where the team leader takes over and matures their training skills. And then we go and follow up and make sure that they’re meeting those requirements.”

This is just the start. At Lexus production facilities in Japan, certainly highly skilled staff members are referred to as Takumi masters. The word Takumi roughly translates to “artisan,” and these masters are selected for their skill level and refined senses. It’s been said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for someone to become an expert at their craft; Takumi masters train for 60,000 hours to earn the titles that certify them as master trainers. One of the standards they must be able to meet is the ability to fold an origami cat with their non-dominant hand in 90 seconds. (Yes, this is a real thing.)

There are not yet any Takumi masters at TMMC, MacNeil says, but it’s a standard the facility is actively working toward.

“They probably have 30 years of Lexus experience,” he said. “We’re not quite there yet. But we’re building a team that can train to those standards.”

Making changes quickly based on customer feedback

MacNeil said the Lexus brand considers ongoing response to customer feedback to be integral to the brand’s constant strive for improvement.

“We go out into the field and we visit our dealers,” MacNeil said. “We have face-to-face conversations and we get immediate feedback of our customers. And for every comment or every interaction, we bring that back to the plant and we see how we can drive those changes back through product specification.

“In the vehicle with our customers, they feed back that maybe it needs a little more power or there’s torque understeer or there’s shift delay at this gear. We take that information and we feed it back to see, in the manufacturing process, what can we do.

“In the case of where there was a shift difference, we brought that back to the designers and we changed the software. Sometimes that can take a long time in development, but at the manufacturing process we see what we can do to expedite implementing that software on the next vehicle as quickly as possible. Sometimes, we put a temporary countermeasure in place to help support the customer until the final program gets into the ECU at the supplier. That’s one example where we would have very quick action.”

Thorough and repetitive testing

MacNeil says that Lexus remains consistent and thorough in how parts and finished vehicles are tested to ensure they meet quality requirements.

“(We) 100 per cent dry-test all our engines and wet-test all the transmissions,” MacNeil said. “Some OEMs don’t do that anymore. They wait for it to get into the car before they test. But we still are meticulous to make sure the powertrain is meeting all the specifications before we put it in the car.

“Once it is put into the vehicle, we test drive every vehicle on the test track. Not only (do they) go through a roll test on the vehicle performance line in the plant, we take them outside and drive them on a test course checking for noise, vibration, harshness, power, those types of things.”

A healthy dose of competition

Those J.D. Power Plant Quality Awards mean a great deal within Lexus — so much so that Lexus plants consider themselves in competition globally to win the most. TMMC is only one award away from surpassing its sister plant, Toyota Motor Kyushu in Japan, for having the most plant quality awards on the planet. This becomes a factor in helping to push for constant improvement, MacNeil said.

“We’re fighting to be that best in the world,” MacNeil said. “Competition to be the global best in quality is healthy. And in the end, that’s where the customer wins.”