Strategic Implementation Plans: Case Study of Safety Scandals at Toyota

TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM (TPS) The TPS model depends on its Human Infrastructure. The entire model is base on its PEOPLE & TEAMWORK being successful in doing their job and there buy in to the Key Elements of the TPS culture, which are as follows;  Selection  Ringi decision making  Common Goals  Cross-Trained TPS emphasize the point of its human infrastructure as a “COMMON GOAL” for all personnel in the corporation, which again is emphasize that its employees are its greatest assets as shown by the

Total Quality Management is a process that strives for complete satisfaction internally and externally. There are two popular methods used in today’s organizations, The Toyota Production System and the Six Sigma model. Toyota created its management system over the course of three decades. It is also known as lean manufacturing, which is in regards to limiting the amount of waste produced. This is not just physical waste but includes the management of time throughout the process, for example time waiting, conveyance,

The company wanted to grow even more and that led to compromise in the quality and its manufacturing techniques. There were constant complaints related to safety in the Toyota cars. This was followed by a series of recalls thus making the reputation of Toyota Motor Corporation questionable in the eyes of the consumers.

Toyota has hit the headlines over the years over the defects in several of their models which has sent it on a public relations and safety campaigns relating to its vehicles. Notably is the Toyota safety campaign in North America for certain models of Toyota as well as Lexus brands concerning the floor mat entrapment of accelerator pedals, later on it extended to other models in November 2009.

In 2009 Toyota encountered a public backlash after the discovery of a potentially catastrophic engineering defect among its brand of automobiles including its best-selling Corolla and Camry models. This led to a massive and global recall of approximately 10 million units a year later. The engineering defect caused the models to accelerate out of control and put their drivers and other

Toyota grew at a record speed and could not keep up with the speed in which it was growing. They are a centralized company and Japan only made the decisions. This prevented the company to keep up with the safety problems. The process that Toyota external suppliers follow when improving product and making sure the product is functioning properly before shipping to Toyota needs to be improved before they release the product from their warehouse to be sent to Toyota. This problem began when the company started to rapidly grow. Toyota’s lack of communication led to the faulty gas pedal recall.

As if this weren’t enough, quality problems mounted week after week. Only months later in February 2010, the NHTSA revealed that it had received claims citing another life threatening defect in the break system for the Toyota Prius. More than 400 thousand Prius recalls resulted. In April of 2010, customers reported handling issues in the Lexus brand which resulted in another recall of 9,400 Lexus cars and a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” rating from Consumer Reports. Also in April, the company voluntarily recalled Siennas to address a problem with corrosion on a spare tire cable. Later that month, Toyota voluntarily recalled 2003 Sequoia SUVs to improve the stability controls. 2010 Tacomas were also recalled for defective front drive shafts. Once the quality icon, Toyota had hit a really low point; so low that credit

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

This paper describes various aspects of the Toyota recall issue. It enables to determine the Toyato recall issues, purpose and structure of it. The Toyota recall issue has prompted high criticism in national forums, automotive trade publications and media circles. Three separate recall issue by the Toyota occurred end of 2009 to start of the 2010. First, recall issue was to correct a possible incursion of an incorrect drivers side floor mat into the foot pedal. Second recall issue start after some crashes were presented by floor mat incursion. Last recall issues was a separate recall for hybrid anti-lock brake software. Toyota declared recalls of around 5.2 million vehicles for the floor mat problem and 2.3 million vehicles for

This accident is what caused Toyota to finally announce the recalls regarding the sticking accelerator pedals. Toyota had known about the defective parts before anyone was injured, but instead of disclosing the information they continued to “manufacture new cars with the same parts they knew were deadly,” and they never announced a recall (Cogan,

sales of Chrysler automobiles in the same year, experienced huge setbacks in 2009 when the company found itself scrambling to protect its name brand image due to consumer complaints about “deadly defects in coolant pumps, brakes, accelerators and even floor mats” (Ross, 2010, p.1). This prompted the recall of over 10 million Toyota vehicles worldwide.

Due to Toyota’s financial greed and unethical practice, vehicles were wrongly equipped with faulty brakes, sticking pedals and poor quality door looks, which caused death of many Toyota customers and hundreds of dollars in damages. When a company like Toyota acts in an ethically questionable manner, it causes the company to lose customers and develop a negative reputation. Customer tend to lose faith in the company and have to look for better service

Lean manufacturing originated long before Toyota and Ford, however the thought that it originated with Toyota is flattering since they are the ones who perfected it. By creating the Toyota Production System (TPS), Toyota found a better way to produce large quantities of product efficiently with eliminating the waste factor and while cutting down cost. Taiichi Ohno a former Toyota vice president promoted the idea of JIT (Just-in-Time) which means “producing the necessary units in the necessary quantities at the necessary time.” (Monden) Which leads to Toyota’s ultimate goal in the TPS is to improve productivity for better return in investment. To have continuous flow in a production system Toyota sought out to achieve the concept of JIT and autonomation . Since the TPS is what creates the parts who monitors the JIT system? The kanban system which is an informational system that controls quantities being produce in each process. As the discussion carries on throughout this paper about Toyota and their use of the kanban system the topic

Throughout the years, Toyota has defined themselves as one of the top vehicle vendors in the world. Ending in March 2004, Toyota’s “net income [was] $10.49 billion in yen,” which was more than General Motors and Ford Motor combined (Bozarth & Handfield, 2008). With Toyota’s car sales on the rise they wanted to focus on improving the quality of cars being produced. Unfortunately for Toyota, they found a series of errors and glitches in their entire assembly process with had a negative impact towards Toyota’s brand.

Looking at the studies made by academic agencies and the article released by Associated Press, it was since 2000s when Toyota first encountered vehicle incidents. The involved vehicle was Toyota Yaris and Lexus wherein the acceleration happens and airbags of the Yaris units were not fully functioning causing deaths and accidents for the customers. The manufacturer did not give much attention on scrutinizing the case; and instead they have falsely publicly disclosed that the “main” cause of acceleration was the floor mats without undergoing intense product checking since they were avoiding defect examinations. Looking on how big Toyota has become, they gave so much importance on the company’s market sales reputation. Based on reports, Toyota admitted that they only had a minimal check and redesigning on the engine and floor mats since they do not want to give commotion in the market and it would give less consumers for them. Ethical issue was really present since they deserted the safety of its consumers and they were egocentric enough that only gave importance to its reputation and profit. Wherein in all cases of businesses, it is the immoral thing to do. And during those years, it was mentioned that Toyota had delayed recalls in order to avoid one time massive recalling of