A Brief Study on Toyota's Operation and Total Quality Management

In order to speed up the process, Toyota could give a chance to the process manager to make changes to the attachment methods and quality test them. If successful, this could increase the daily yield of parts per day, helping towards the goal.

Yet, the public perceptions may be at odds with the objective measures. In Toyota’s case, there have been indications that the quality level of the company’s products had fallen off in a span of few years. There are changes that have taken place during a period when most of the company’s close competitors, such as Fords, were producing more cost-effective and efficient automobiles. In addition, the company’s unique production approach and the emphasis on continuous improvement and learning coupled with a matrix structure are key reasons for the company’s leadership in the cat manufacturing industry. Toyota’s Production Systems (TPS) was founded in the principles of “Just-in-time. This approach has less opportunity for slack resources and focuses of the benefits of efficiency on the part of employees and reduction on waste resources (Griffin and Gregory, 5). Further, Toyota Company enacts its production system with the assistance of its human resources strategies, culture, and organizational structure. Toyota’s Production System emphasizes on learning and modesty when it comes to assessing past success and differentiated them from

As Taiichi Ohno rightly says – “People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’, they go there to think”. “where there is no standard, there can be no kaizen”, and “Improvement is endless and

Toyota has a manufacturing facility of the overseas of 50 in 27 countries, and is doing business expansion globally. Moreover, the Toyota car is sold by 160 countries of an overseas. The number of dealer is 8,485 dealers in the world (Expect Japan), and there are more than 270 dealers in Australia. We can buy Toyota’s product everywhere.

Toyota is following the best-cost strategy because with their Lexus line they charge lower prices compared to competitor’s luxury cars. Toyota offers substantial differentiation because it is able to provide high performance features and luxury with the Lexus models in comparison to other high end models such as the BMW. Toyota went from making high quality cars at low cost to making premium quality Lexus models at costs that are below other luxury car makers. These are specific characteristics that make each of these firms a best-cost provider. Toyota has established Lexus dealers which are separate from the Toyota dealers; this allows the Lexus dealers to provide a better level of customer service. With the Toyota Lexus, the company has given the customer a lower price from its competitors without compromising the luxury.

Suppliers are integral elements of Toyota. They are geographically located within 56 miles radius. A security of guaranteed order is given which enables them to produce the best quality raw materials at cheapest cost achieving economies of scale. Toyota does not believe in choosing supplier as a lowest bidder. But it believes in gradual mutual improvement. It believes in "vendor creation and development". As an initiative in this direction it trains its suppliers as per required.

Toyota today is one of the leading lean example in today’s manufacturing market. Starting back in the 1930’s with the idea of Just-in-Time to cut down cost in waste from overstocked storage rooms to a better efficient assembly lines who produced what was needed at a certain time. The Kanban system is one of the most used methods that the Japanese found during the 1950’s during a trip to United States in a super market.

By entering into car manufacturing market is very costly and risky as the initial costs required a large capital investment on technologies, economics of scale and accessibility to distribution channels has restricted the entry of new entrant to the industry. Toyota is a popular brand and constant market presence in different sectors with largesize that allows Toyota to have a competitive advantage over the new entrants in the automobile industry (Toyota Motor Co. 2013). An automotive

Toyota’s assembly plant is one of the key elements in Toyota’s supply chain and is one of the focus of its Research and Development department. Toyota makes a yearly effort to improve efficiency and product quality to make its car assembly efficient and technologically advanced. The assembly plant process begins with the stamping shop. A process that utilizes heavy duty machinery to stamp out whole and individual parts of its cars in batches. Large presses are lined up in a conveyor that progressively cut a car’s section such as door panels and body into shape. These machines work like a team where specialized tasks are assigned. For example, the first press would produce a basic shape for a door panel, afterwards, the conveyor will roll the newly shaped steel towards a second press that would then create a curved appearance. From there, it would then be fed to another press that

Toyota is a key player in global automotive market. Its structure constitutes if various production plants in different locations and a very strong branding which helps it capture a major market share. Like other enterprises, Toyota has several strengths and weakness which makes it what it is now. Toyota heavily invests in Research and development which helps it come up reputable product line which is spread out throughout the world because of its strengthening global distribution network however its recent product recalling, loose grip in key geographic areas and wrong allocation of resources shows that even a strong brand like Toyota has its weaknesses.

During the identification stage for process improvement in the previous assessment, we were able to identify that Toyota’s failure to adhere to its own principles “The Toyota Way” in regards to the Toyota Production System (TPS), more directly principle 5, to build a culture for stopping production in order to fix identified problems and getting quality right the first time. Furthermore, leading to Toyota’s biggest crisis “sudden unintended acceleration” in their top selling models causing a number of losses across the board. It is clear that Toyota must follow the TPS, precisely the Total Quality Management process (TQM), in order to properly address and resolve any issues associated with the safety and quality of its products. It is imperative to have the complete buy-in and support of Upper Management to encourage accountability and ensure the sustainability of this process. Thereby, enabling Toyota to re-build its brand, re-gain consumer trust and confidence in their products and reposition themselves as the leading automotive manufacturer internationally. During this assessment we will create a current state and new process map for the recommended process improvement; create a cause-and-effect diagram; and identify one main cause as a result of the examination of the cause-and –effect diagram and current state process map.

The interview was conducted with former employee of Toyota, who was working there as Sales Manager. During interview following questions were asked

The Toyota Motor Company has always been one of the most popular auto mobile manufacturing companies in the world.

* To face this labour crisis, Toyota’s union and management formed a Committee in which their representatives questioned the production efficiency management coupled with production allowance, the human resources management, the working conditions and the tough assembly line work. Toyota decided to radically modify its production system.

So Toyota likewise propel their worker to take care of issue when it emerge with the goal that they can accomplish mistake free item.