Abstract
The Toyota motor company of Japan has taken the challenge of better quality management seriously and has proved its ability to compete with the leaders of the industry such as Ford, Volvo, Chevrolet et al. By careful adoption of cutting edge technologies such as Total quality management, Toyota has turned itself into a game changer in the industry.
This assignment focuses on how Toyota achieved its objectives using TQM. It unfolds in three stages starting with The company and its scope. Secondly competitive environment analysis with SWOT analyses and finally it arrives at conclusion based on a thorough evaluation of the organization.
Introduction
Before analyzing the operations of Toyota We need to learn more about the company. …show more content…
The public view can be at odds with the objective measures. In the case of Toyota, there were definitely indications that the quality level of its products had fallen off in recent years. What’s more, the changes had occurred during a period of time when many of Toyota’s competitors, including Ford, Chevrolet and Hyundai, were producing better and better cars. The key question was the source of Toyota’s problems: To what extent did they originate with the product designs and assembly, and to what extent could they be pegged to the company’s manufacturing systems? (Cole, 2011)
Method
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a method used to analyze the internal and external environment of an organization. The Following is a comprehensive SWOT analysis of Toyota Motor Company.
Strengths:
- Toyota operates factories in US and China that led to increase in company profits since 2005.
- The organization through careful segmentation, Targeting and positioning offers the right product mix to the market.
- Toyota is highly efficient in its manufacturing which uses total quality management.
- Toyota has a strong brand name, which is a house hold brand name all around the world.
Weaknesses:
- Toyota is excessively focused on US and Japanese markets. Thus suffers from fluctuating economic and political conditions …show more content…
Toyota executives had a number of warnings about its deteriorating quality. In early 2009, for example, before the massive recalls, Toyota disbanded a high-level task force that had been set up in 2005 to deal with quality issues. A Toyota manager explained the decision by saying that management had come to believe that quality control was part of the company’s DNA and therefore they didn’t need a special committee to enforce it.
In January 2008, Chris Tinto, Toyota’s U.S. vice president in charge of technical and regulatory affairs, further warned his fellow executives that “some of the quality issues we are experiencing are showing up in defect investigations (rear gas struts, ball joints, etc…).”(Frean, 2010) These and other early warnings were ignored. In a pattern not uncommon in large organizations, politically powerful executives shrugged off early warnings of lower-ranking executives. (Busby, 2006)
There appear to be two root causes for Toyota’s quality problems. The first is an outgrowth of management’s ambitions for rapid growth. The second is the result of the increasing complexity of the company’s
The Toyota motor company of Japan has taken the challenge of better quality management seriously and has proved its ability to compete with the leaders of the industry such as Ford, Volvo, Chevrolet et al. By careful adoption of cutting edge technologies such as Total quality management, Toyota has turned itself into a game changer in the industry.
This assignment focuses on how Toyota achieved its objectives using TQM. It unfolds in three stages starting with The company and its scope. Secondly competitive environment analysis with SWOT analyses and finally it arrives at conclusion based on a thorough evaluation of the organization.
Introduction
Before analyzing the operations of Toyota We need to learn more about the company. …show more content…
The public view can be at odds with the objective measures. In the case of Toyota, there were definitely indications that the quality level of its products had fallen off in recent years. What’s more, the changes had occurred during a period of time when many of Toyota’s competitors, including Ford, Chevrolet and Hyundai, were producing better and better cars. The key question was the source of Toyota’s problems: To what extent did they originate with the product designs and assembly, and to what extent could they be pegged to the company’s manufacturing systems? (Cole, 2011)
Method
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a method used to analyze the internal and external environment of an organization. The Following is a comprehensive SWOT analysis of Toyota Motor Company.
Strengths:
- Toyota operates factories in US and China that led to increase in company profits since 2005.
- The organization through careful segmentation, Targeting and positioning offers the right product mix to the market.
- Toyota is highly efficient in its manufacturing which uses total quality management.
- Toyota has a strong brand name, which is a house hold brand name all around the world.
Weaknesses:
- Toyota is excessively focused on US and Japanese markets. Thus suffers from fluctuating economic and political conditions …show more content…
Toyota executives had a number of warnings about its deteriorating quality. In early 2009, for example, before the massive recalls, Toyota disbanded a high-level task force that had been set up in 2005 to deal with quality issues. A Toyota manager explained the decision by saying that management had come to believe that quality control was part of the company’s DNA and therefore they didn’t need a special committee to enforce it.
In January 2008, Chris Tinto, Toyota’s U.S. vice president in charge of technical and regulatory affairs, further warned his fellow executives that “some of the quality issues we are experiencing are showing up in defect investigations (rear gas struts, ball joints, etc…).”(Frean, 2010) These and other early warnings were ignored. In a pattern not uncommon in large organizations, politically powerful executives shrugged off early warnings of lower-ranking executives. (Busby, 2006)
There appear to be two root causes for Toyota’s quality problems. The first is an outgrowth of management’s ambitions for rapid growth. The second is the result of the increasing complexity of the company’s