Toyota's Fall From Grace

Although the theory of continuous improvement and six sigma are sound practices to analyze a business state it is imperative to understand the balance between profitability and the cost of poor quality. It seems that Toyota has fallen of the edge of the fence after initially being on the greener side. There comes a point that business decisions will prevail in order to keep investors happy after you have six sigma'd your manufacturing and design to death. Although, there is a good argument that DFSS and NPD should never get stale. Congress may want to investigate the debacle around the "oh it's the floor mats" but the other side to that coin is who would accept such a flimsy root cause analysis - clearly I would not and neither would many other engineers well versed in RCA.
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The Climate of the times

Caution seems to be the word of the year thus far.  Manufacturers in the United States are hesitant to pull the trigger on full time employees.  We may want to re-consider the traditional full-time engineer and speed up the timeline to the world of independent consulting.  For someone not planning on a career in consulting so soon, I can see the benefits for both the employer and employee.  As with any change it comes down to a level of comfort with the "new thing".  In my instance it may seem like I have been destined to be a consultant.  For my entire career, working as a divisional or corporate engineer, I've been groomed in the lifestyle of supporting multiple facilities to address several challenges in the design, development and manufacturing of products and processes.  I have also led product and process implementation strategies to align customer wants and needs with acceptance criteria, specifications, and validation plans.