Total Quality Management in Toyota

Yasin and Alavi (1999) conducted a quantitative study to determine if Total Quality Management (TQM) can produce quality improvement

For more than 50 years, Toyota Motor Corporation has been one of the world’s leading manufacturers of motor vehicles in the United States. It was born a Japanese company in 1935 and came to America in 1957. Now headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, it employs more than 300 thousand employees globally (Toyota Motor Corporation Company Profile, 2012). In addition Toyota is a global marketing organization. It strategically operates primarily through Japan, Asia, Europe, and North America; but its vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions across the globe (Toyota Motor Corporation Company Profile, 2012). The Toyota brand is traditionally defined by brand attributes such as global leadership, innovation,

Toyota is a leading company, and for over 70 years. It has been expanding business all over the world and

Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the Japanese automotive manufacturer that headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. The history of Toyota began in 1933 with the company being a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobile under the direction of Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder’s son. Toyota Motor Corporation have use code of conduct, corporate social responsibility and sustainability policies for their firm daily operations.

Automobile industry of japan witnessed an awesome accomplishment with the growth of Toyota. It became the biggest maker in the worldwide business. Toyoda kiichiro was hesitant to invest in automobile sector. In the year 1933 the company started its production. In order to have cost efficiency they adopted the mass production technology.

Toyota is one of the leading manufacturers of vehicles in the United States and across the globe. Toyota is ranked #55 in Forbes, World’s Biggest Public Companies, and capturing sales of 202.8 billion and a market cap of 137.8 billion as of March 2011

First, it is essential to decompose the concept “Total Quality Management” to clearly understand its goal: “Total” goes for the fact that quality involves everyone and all activities in the company, “Quality” means conformance to Requirements “ Meeting Customer Requirements” and “Management” because Quality can and must be managed. 2 The TQM model is based on the hypothesis that a company’s survival is only possible if a competitive level is achieved and maintained for each of the so called «6 dimensions of quality»: • • • • • • Product & service quality On-time delivery Fair price Employees satisfaction Product & process safety Environment conservation.

“Toyota Industries Corporation was founded in 1926 by Sakichi Toyoda. It is the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer. It conducts its business worldwide. Toyota’s vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions. It employs approximately 320,808 people worldwide. It leads the automobile industry in environmental technologies with the success of the hybrid technology in the Prius and Hybrid Camry” (Toyota, 2012);

We agree with critics that Toyota sacrificed its quality to become global market leader. Because, they forgot their core competencies and put aside the value of quality that they created for their customers. The company is at the point of losing its quality edge because the quality and safety are the most important features of automobiles. Although, Toyota has a reputation for a long time in the industry, this reputation is fading due to customer complaints and dissatisfaction. According to Fisher “It takes a very long time to establish a reputation for safety and reliability. It doesn’t take very long to lose it.”. It is a very valid proposition especially according to today’s market. Because, buyers have various options between the car manufacturers. Total quality management concept and lean manufacturing are discovered by the competitiors of Toyota. It means that, Toyota is not the only player who concernes about quality and customer. The roles in the game are changed and current competitors improve themselves according to the customer expectations and put customer into center of their business. So it is a tough environment for Toyota to gain their customer loyalty

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an improvement tool that is widely used in many companies. It consists of many aspects including Managing people as well as business processes in order to maintain customer satisfaction. With TQM, Businesses starts to do the right thing from the start and to ensure zero error. Therefore, it is important to learn the principle of TQM and how it acts in organizations with its advantages and disadvantages.

On August 28, 1937 in Aichi, Japan, the company now commonly known as Toyota Motor Company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda (Toyota). Inspired by his father Sakichi Toyoda’s spirit to invent and the business lessons taught to him, Kiichiro set out to start his own company. In 1922, Kiichiro Toyoda had invented a new automatic loom. Along side his father, Kiichiro got approved to start his first organization, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. On April 26, 1926 (Toyota). After getting involved with various automobile companies such as the Japanese and American divisions of both GM and Ford, Kiichiro wanted to establish

Introduction - Total quality management (TQM) has been defined as ‘continuous improvement of every production output whether it be a product or a service, by removing inefficient variations and by improving the backbone of the work process’. International managers like their domestic counterparts have found that incorporating the notion of total quality management into their management process and style can give the competitive advantage.

According to “Management: A Practical Introduction”, Total Quality Management is defined as a comprehensive approach dedicated to the continuous improvement of quality, training, and customer satisfaction. There are four components to Total Quality Management, and they include making continuous improvement a priority, getting every employee involved, listen to and learn from customers and employees, and using accurate standards to identify and eliminate problems (Kimiki Williams 528). For companies that use the Total Quality Management approach, these values will often times be defined in their core values and principles, and the specifics of these values may be different from company to company. As

Toyota is a world leading automobile manufacturer, headquartered in Japan, but selling its vehicles throughout the entire world. The company is a notable success story within the business community due to its strategy of global expansion. As the established leaders of the American automobile industry failed to adapt their offer to the changing needs of their customers, Toyota proved able to adapt its production to the new needs, creating small size and fuel efficient engines. This situation has increased the market share of the Japanese cars in the American and global market place.

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese automotive manufacturer. Toyota has over 333 thousand of employees across the world and it is the 14th largest company in the world by revenue in 2014. It is the strategic management of logistic and supply that contributes partly of its success today.