Toyota Case Study (Case 4). Toyota: Origins, Evolution, and Current Prospects

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

Toyota believes that to make high-quality vehicles, the quality of each supplier's components plays an important role. Therefore, the original philosophy of Toyota's supply chain collaboration is to reduce long-term costs by establishing long-term partnerships with suppliers instead of traditional ones. Based on this close long-term relationship, we help suppliers to build on Toyota's ever-improving thinking and culture, import Toyota's production system (TPS) to share information and knowledge, learn and pursue improvement together. Hence, Toyota invests a lot of time, and human resources efforts in the fields of purchasing, engineering, manufacturing and management, and even evaluates the selected

Toyota’s products were a byword for quality of customers so much that that it can manufacturing

The Toyota Production System grew out of the workings of the company over 50 years, and it has never actually been written down. Making the implicit explicit, the authors lay out four principles that show how Toyota sets up all its operations as experiments and teaches the scientific method to its workers. The first rule governs the way workers do their work. The second, the way they interact with one another. The third governs how production lines are constructed. And the last, how people learn to improve. Every activity, connection, and production path designed according to these rules must have built-in tests that signal problems immediately. And it is the continual response to those problems that makes this seemingly rigid system so flexible and adaptive to changing

or decades, Toyota’s success in the marketplace has been admired by business practitioners and executives alike. The automaker is the envy of others within the automobile industry, but the company is also considered to be the symbol of excellence in business in general. The firm has been the focus of research in academia. The power of Toyota has been attributed to its two distinct core values:

Toyota must keep on producing vehicles that car customers want to buy. They must figure out what these buyers demand in a car. Once they tackle this then they can be successful, but if they don’t produce what they buyers want then they will not reach their goals.

Toyota’s manufacturing techniques, the specifics of the Toyota production system have allowed the company to operate at a greater level of efficiency than its competitors. The lastly is about that continuous improvement. Thus, Toyota has been able to sustain a competitive advantage by utilizing a tangible resource that is rare and not easily imitable.

With domestic markets becoming saturated with competition, organizations with the financial reach look to international market segments to obtain growth potential. Though not all companies hold the capabilities to obtain such a feat, Toyota has and is competitive.

Toyota's rigorous standards are achieved by very rigid control of worker activities. "Employees follow a well-defined sequence of steps for a particular job. This specificity enables people to see and address deviations immediately encouraging continual learning and improvement" (Spear & Bowen 2012:1). Toyota's demand for uniformity of movements might seem anathema to American individualism, were it not for the fact that scientific management as a concept actually originated in the United States. Scientific management had similar principles to the Toyota Production System (TPS), whereby extraneous movements are eliminated and every order for every supply and every movement on the production line is predetermined. Anyone who has ever worked for a fast food

Toyota has various global branch offices in the world and it supports the company by having a strong market position. Toyota’s markets for two most recognized brands Lexus and Toyota and could be considered as great market share in different regions such as in North America, in Asia excluding Japan, in Europe, in China, and etc. This helps Toyota have a better competitive advantages and opportunities of growing in global marketplace. Toyota also concentrates on Research & Development in the global facilities in order to enhance quality of service and product functionality, thus increasing product safety. A good strength is based on the innovation of current products, development of new products and manufacturing process. This strength supports Toyota in incorporating modern attributes such as technology to current range of products and other related fields, maintaining technical and innovative leadership in its automotive

Toyota is able to offer competitive advantage through its valuable resources that makes it able to attract and retain best suppliers and also its rare and unique staff. Also, Toyota’s competitors cannot manage and develop their HR at the same cost that Toyota does.

We will start the external analysis with the PESTEL analysis of the automotive sector followed by the Porter’s five forces analysis and we will end by having a look at the key competitors and competitor pricing.

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.

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.

By 2007, Toyota was leading its industry as the largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Operating under a strong growth strategy, their reputation for exceptional quality and high safety ratings coupled with operational efficiency promoted their competitive advantage. Furthermore, Toyota was principally the symbol of excellence and a benchmark for every other company. When examining their strategy under Porter’s model Toyota maintains a strong combined plan focusing on both cost leadership and broad differentiation. Through the process of lean daily management and just-in-time delivery Toyota led the manufacturing world with a distinguished level of efficiency. Examining their success and processes, manufacturing was transformed and Toyota was the envy of many. Additionally, through innovation Toyota actively sought differentiation as a generic tactic. Hybrid technology was successfully implemented into their Prius model vehicles and the Prius became the first, pioneering mass-produced vehicle of its kind.