Toyota's Production Methods: Do They Commensurate with the Values of the United States?

The factors that group two considers important to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada will be using the weighted scoring model which is a system used to document decisions or solutions for management to make informed decisions taking into account all available options when it comes to resource allocation, (Carroll, Farr & Trainor, 2008).

Prior to Toyota’s Production System, the company was efficient, yet could not compete with large American competitors such as General Motors and Ford. Therefore, management realized that if the company was to be successful not only in Japan, but globally it would need to improve its manufacturing process. Consequently, the company developed Toyota’s lean manufacturing process, which is still used today. The LMP was used to eliminate waste in the entire production process to become more responsive to market demand and produce high quality products economically. In order to provide superior products, Toyota implemented many revolutionary strategies. For example, the company started, or invented, the Just-in-Time Manufacturing process. The JIT process, according to our text, is used to reduce inventory costs by scheduling supplies to arrive just in time to enter the production process or as inventory stock is depleted (Hill et al., 2015). Toyota used the just-in-time system to improve its supply chain management, which drastically decreased costs and increased the company’s production facilities output as compared to its competitors. In addition to JIT, the company introduced a concept known as Kanban that was included within the new JIT system. The Kanban system was developed by Ohno and was used to arrange for components and/or assemblies manufactured at Toyota to be delivered to the assembly floor only when needed, not before (Hill et al., 2015). Essentially the Kanban

Toyota Production System (TPS) on the other hand shifts their focus primarily towards employee empowerment engaging team members to optimize quality by constantly improving processes and eliminating unnecessary waste in all resources. Its main focus is to provide best quality, lowest cost, and shortest lead time through the elimination of waste. A drawback to this system is the high cost and the level of complexity to implement the method.

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

In 2012, Suzuki faced the question of whether or not to continue selling automobiles in the

This paper deals with the production systems of two major leaders in the automobile market. Mass production is briefly touched up on and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Lean production is the emerging trend, which talks about minimizing waste and increasing production. We have also thrown light on when to use lean and mass

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

Although collectivism has traditionally been associated with eastern cultures (Härtel, Fujimoto, Straybosch, & Fitzpatrick, 2007), motor companies like Ford and Toyota moved away from Taylorism and demonstrated the value of teamwork in vehicle manufacturing (Winfield & Kerrin, 1996). However, MMC’s reward system of individual production bonuses did not acknowledge the value of teamwork. Moreover, an unspecified dollar amount that was eroded by inefficiencies in the production process did not provide an incentive to improve production. Not only should these individual production bonuses be quantified, the company should also consider a reward system for foremen to acknowledge their efforts in encouraging individuals and teams to achieve higher production.

The main topic of the case was the problems caused by defective or damaged seats. TMM USA's seat problem was threefold. The first was the actual defects with the hooks and the damaged caused by cross threading by employees when installing the seats. This problem led to the second problem, which was the departure from the Toyota Production System (TPS) when dealing with the seat problem. Rather than fix the problem with the seat when it happened, they continued with the car's production and worried about the seat afterwards. And this led to the third problem, a build up of cars with seat problems in the off-line operation area.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A. (TMM) is deviating from the standard assembly line principle of jidoka in an attempt to avoid expenses incurred from stopping the production line for seat quality defects. This deviation has contributed to the inability to identify the root cause of the problem, which has led to decreased run ratios on the line and an excess of defective automobiles in the overflow lot for multiple days. If this problem isn’t fixed quickly, an increased amount of waste will continue to be incurred and customer value will be threatened.

Henry Ford was an industrial pioneer and a renowned car manufacturer in the United States. Fordism is a concept that is primarily based on the mass production of products which would become known as a production line. During the 1940’s through to the 1960’s there was an increase in consumption; this was because the sale prices were low and the products were available to consumers. Fordism was based around strong hierarchical control over workers; restricting them to one single task on the production lines. This theory believed that the “best way to improve output was to improve the techniques or methods used by the workers” (Robbins p.38). Ford decided to merge and emphasise scientific methods in order to improve the way tasks were completed. This was because of the mass-production processes. Fordism and scientific management share common themes. The theory, scientific management originated in

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.

Toyota Motor Company is one of the world’s leading auto manufacturers. The Company is headquartered in Japan. It employs over 172,000 workers in the United States, to include personnel at production facilities and dealers. The automaker also produces Lexus and Scion brands. The Toyota Group includes Toyota Industries and Toyota Motor Company. The Company has attained near legendary status in the industry with its speed to market capabilities, lean manufacturing programs, and groundbreaking technology. The Company’s continuous improvement production process was the trademark of its success. More than 20% of its market value has been lost due to a recall of accelerator pedals that stick. The Toyota recalls were not the largest in the history of auto manufacturing, and the Company should have handled the situation differently (Parnell, 2014).

A best-cost provider strategy is very appealing in markets where product differentiation is the norm and there is an attractively large number of value-conscious buyers who prefer midrange products to cheap, basic products or expensive top-of-the-line products. For example, Toyota’s Best-Cost Producer Strategy for Its Lexus Line. Toyota has achieved low-cost leadership status because it has developed considerable skills in efficient supply chain management and low-cost assembly capabilities and because its models are so well-positioned in the low-to-medium end of the price spectrum. These are enhanced by Toyota’s strong emphasis in quality.

Management approaches and practices are core to the concept of business management due to the insight it offers on various aspects of improving the efficiency of organizations. There have been a lot of researchers that have devoted a great deal of time to the study of these practices and approaches. Two very famous amongst these contributors are Fred W. Taylor and Henry Ford. Taylor had advocated that the task and priority of factory management was to determine the most efficient way for a worker to do his job, to provide all the necessary equipment and training to complete the job and to make sure that the task at hand is done achieving optimal efficiency by providing workers with incentives. He broke down each job into its individual motions, analyzed the importance of each and then timed the workers with a stopwatch. He then eliminated unnecessary motion and asked the workers to perform machine-like routine, which increased the efficiency. On the other hand Fordism was a specific stage of economic development in the 20th century. The term gained popularity as it was recognized by firstly, the system of mass production that was pioneered in the early 20th century by the Ford Motor Company and secondly, the typical postwar mode of economic growth and its associated political and social order that advanced capitalism. In this essay we will critically discuss and analyze the impact of Taylorism and Fordism on contemporary management approaches and practices.