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Toyota Case Study : Toyota Motor Corporation

Decent Essays

Toyota Toyota Motor Corporation is well-respected Japanese company that designs, manufactures, assembles and sells motor vehicles and parts. History of the Company to Current Times In 1929 a Japanese inventor and founder of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Sakichi Toyoda, sold patent rights to a British company for one hundred thousand pounds (Bernasek 78). The money was used by his son, Kiichiro Toyoda, to establish an automobile division within Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, which in 1937 became Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota initially struggled and couldn’t afford to keep an on-hand supply of parts, leading to a solution of just-in-time production, an adaptation of Henry Ford’s lean manufacturing (Magee 32). Just-in-time production, …show more content…

Toyota’s values led it to become the company it is today, a multinational corporation producing vehicles under 5 brands (Toyota, Hinz, Lexus, Ranz and Scion) with 344,109 employees worldwide and a net revenue of 2.1733 trillion-yen net income for 2015. Ethical Decision While Toyota has built up a reputation for quality over the decades, between 2007 and 2011 Toyota recalled millions of vehicles due to problems with gas pedals. Some of these vehicles had unsecured floor mats that could trap accelerators while some that had sticky accelerators. While Toyota was aware of the problems, they made a poor ethical decision and waited to initiate recalls (Bowen and Zheng 40). Additionally, Toyota “made misleading public statements to consumers and gave inaccurate facts to Members of Congress” (DOJ). Toyota did this in an attempt to protect both their brand image and their bottom line. Toyota was prosecuted by the United States and as a result had to pay a $1.2 billion penalty and had an independent monitor was “appointed to oversee Toyota’s public statements and reporting of safety issues” (DOJ). Strengths and Weaknesses Even with the recalls, Toyota still has a relatively good image. They are known for producing affordable and reliable cars and have strong name recognition. Another strength Toyota has is its production and distribution network. As of 2015, Toyota was working with 53

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