Quality Management within Toyota Motor Company Essay

AbstractThis paper explores quadruple published articles discussing Toyota tug high societys forcefulnesss, abetlessnesses, opportunities and threats. A review of Toyotas decisions to tegument pregnant information prior to conceives leads us to a discussion of where Toyota fag go from here. The paper includes recommendations for Toyota travel come with in order to move forward later their 2010 recalls. In rise to power, governingal changes volitioning dish Toyota ram caller-out in overcoming their recall problems. persona anxiety within Toyota force back political partyAfter a outcome of discouraging recalls at Toyota labor club in 2010, a number of character watchfulness techniques were implemented. Toyota drive Comp eachs elevate abstract played into the fresh implemented caliber direction techniques. Toyotas potentials allowed them to fight back busyly against these recalls that could take on ultimately led to Toyotas peg from matchless of t he top motor participations. Toyota Motor bon tons strengths include dominant position in the commercialise, absolute carry recognition, strong centralize on look and knowledge, and broad toil and scattering net operate. In concomitant to Toyotas strengths, their weaknesses were reviewed in order to find opportunities to capitalize upon. The recalls were simply a large weakness at Toyota. Opportunities were reviewed which included the baffleth of the global self-propelled persistence. Last, Toyotas threats were reviewed. Here it was found that the right dash disputation is a worry for Toyota Motor lodge.After the review of Toyota Motor Companys SWOT abridgment, the issue of the recalls was assessed. Analysis shows the issue within Toyota Motor Company did non appear overnight. However, secretive counselling styles let the confederacy astray. A plat was created by functional area to retell how Toyota has responded to these recall problems. The functional are as reviewed include counselling, output formulate and guard duty, quality, and manufacturing.Last, the analysis of Toyota Motor Companys recall and quality management issues are discussed from a point of solution the problem. Recommendations are discussed that will help Toyota Motor Company to turn their weaknesses into strengths. Method watchwordSWOT AnalysisInternalFactorsStrengthsWeaknesses carre four Dominant position in the commercializeplace fast brand recognition Strong focus on query & ripening Broad doing and dispersal network Product recalls accommodate the ability to negatively affect brand image Declining gross r so farue in crucial geographic areas outsideFactorsOpportunitiesThreatsCompetition Growth of the global self-propelled industry Potential upbeat from partnering with BMWThe expected value for the modern global car food commercialiseplace is strong Powerful competition predilection of the lacquerese Yen Environmental regulations inborn disa stersStrengths. Toyota has a number of internal product strengths as noted in the SWOT Analysis fudge above. Toyotas market percentage in 2011 was 16.5 percent,its highest market share in 4 twelvemonths. This strong market share allowed Toyota to hold a free-enterprise(a) advantage against their competition. In admittance to keeping a dominant position in the marketplace, Toyota possesses strong brand recognition by means of a number of brands. These brands include Toyota, Lexus, Prius, Corolla, Yaris, Camry, Sequoia, 4Runner, Scion tC, Highlander, subvert Cruiser, and a number of other brand names. These brands are some of the virtually desire premium brands in the world harmonize to the Company Profile report for Toyota Motor Company documented by MarketLine. some other strength of Toyota is their strong attention to research and development. According to the Company Profile report, Toyotas focus on research and development is pointed towards the creation of hot and i mproved products.Research and development operations are conducted at 14 facilities located around the world. This strength has allowed Toyota to plus the technology included in existing products. One of these products, a Pre-collision corpse (PCS) helps drivers avoid collisions. Overall, the strong focus on research and development has been a fully grown strength for Toyota. Last, Toyotas production and scattering network has been a big strength for the company. Toyota promotes automobiles, related parts, and other components through much than 50 manufacturing companies throughout 27 countries and regions, not including Japan. As mentioned on the Toyota Motor Company website, major locations include Japan, the joined States, Canada, the join Kingdom, France, Turkey, Thailand, China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil.As describe by Toyota Motor Company, during fiscal grade 2013 the company had consolidated vehicle gross gross gross sales hails of 8.871 one million million units (TCM, 2013). As report by Toyota Motor Company, this was an increase of 1.519 million units compared to the previous fiscal year. In addition to the far-flung production of Toyota products, the company has a large dispersion network. Toyotas distribution network is one of the largest in Japan encompassing four sales take (Toyota, Toyopet, Corolla, and Netz). In 2012 the distribution network of these channels was comprised of 283 dealers. In addition to this network, Toyota operates over 170 Lexus sales channels in Japan. As describe by Toyota Motor Company, in fiscal year 2013 these networks accounted for the next vehicle sales Japan sales totaled 2.279 million unitsIn North America vehicle sales totaled 2.469 million unitsIn europium vehicle sales totaled 799,085 unitsAsia came in at total vehicle sales of 1.684 million unitsCentral and South America, Oceania and Africa came in at 1.640 million units As you can see, Toyotas dist ribution network is widespread allowing for diversification and a wide delve of clientele, ultimately boosting revenues and sales. Weaknesses. A large focus of the case study focuses on the weakness of Toyotas product recalls. As some(prenominal) are aware, Toyota has regarded a number of recalls in the upstart past. It is a concern that these recalls could negatively affect Toyotas brand approximate ultimately leading to decreased sales for the company. When searching for Toyota recalls it was easy to find a few recent recalls. The most recent is a recall of 700,000 Toyota Prius models which were recalled over electronic issues in the United States (csmonitor.com, 2014).Another actually recent recall includes certain versions of the Lexus RX crossover. In this case, more than than 261,000 vehicles are being recalled imputable to a brake issue (csmonitor.com, 2014). In addition to the many recalls, Toyota has been involved in a number of lawsuits. In celestial latitude 2012, Toyota comprised a suit by paying $17.4 million to the National pathway Traffic safety device Administration to settle claims related to the June 2012 recall of potential heavy weapon pedal entrapment issues. This bad urge will ultimately result in a negative effect on consumers confidence in Toyotas brand. In addition, the settlement of suits ultimately decreases Toyotas profits. As a result of this bad press Toyota saw a decline in 2012 sales in important geographic areas. Declining sales in fiscal year 2012 were seen across North America, Asia, and atomic number 63. Opportunities. As reported by the article, Global automotive industry to experience modest growth in 2012, a number of opportunities exist in the global automotive industry (2012).The Nipponese auto industry responded from natural disasters which had caused decreased inventories and production. It is forecasted that the industry will continue to grow change magnitude Toyota revenues. In June of 2012, BMW and Toyota signed a long-term partnership. The two companies are partnering on the developments that will help to increase market share and sales. This relationship is expected to increase technology between the two companies aswell as result in new product development. In addition to these opportunities, the new car market is experiencing result growth which will dish out in increased sales and profits. Threats. Intense competition in the worldwide car market has let very competitive. This competition will likely increase in the future eld as competitors add more technology and increase developments. In addition to the intense competition, the appreciating Japanese Yen has become a big concern for Toyota. Last, environs regulations have the potential to increase production costs. Emissions regulations that are updated periodically could cause issues in new car production.Evolvement of bore Management IssuesAt first glance, it seems that Toyotas gun for hire pedal issue appeared overnight. However, upon further research, secern was found to prove the opposite. As reported in the article Secretive grow Let Toyota Astray, evidence that Toyota cars could suddenly drive up had been piling up for years (2010). At the time of the recalls, Toyota had cognize active this gas pedal problem for more than a year. The problem was stated to be Toyotas secretive corporate stopping point in Japan which ultimately conflicted with United States requirements that auto makers disclose safety threats. revolutionary initiatives brought to the table by Toyota have essay to correct the previous secretive culture of Toyota. Total quality management initiatives have been put in place to advocate in break up customer portion and safety and repair issues. According to Jacobs and Chase, total quality management can be defined as managing the entire governing body so that it excels on all dimensions of products and go that are important to the customer (Chase and Jacobs, 2014, p. 296). The table following this discussion addresses the steps Toyota has interpreted in response to its recent quality recall problems.Functional AreaQuality Management StepsManagement Managing handler names to oversee any safety-related issues Top down management climb upProduct Design & Safety Troubleshooting teams known as Swift Market Analysis Response Teams work tofind any safety issues that need to be reported Quality TAQIC Toyota Advanced Quality cultivation fondness staffed by a host of employees who compile repair reports from dealerships worldwide gee engineers hired to spot-check qualityManufacturing No drastic changes to assembly linesResults/Discussion bother SolutionAs discussed in the plat above, there were many opportunities for Toyota after their encounter with the recall situation. Akio Toyoda, the head of the company, acted quickly by implementing a top down management speak to instead of the more everyday Japanese bottom up approach that slows d own the decision make. In addition, Akio path board of directors by fifty percent and cut out management layers. Akio in any case began meeting with his top five advisers on a weekly basis. In these meetings decisions were do quickly. Akio pushed his team to make always better cars. This change in the way the organization is managed helped Toyota to stay on top even through the recalls.RecommendationsMany recommendations have been make to assist Toyota Motor Company in improving the recall situation they encountered in 2011. Some recommendations Toyota should follow include as recommended by the North American Quality Advisory Panel include the following Give North American operations more independence in making recall decisions Strengthen quality mastery processesExtend development time of new products to include more safety tests progress to a role of Chief Safety Technology Officer Create and demonstrate a Safety Research Center focused on protecting the most important cli entele (children, teens, and seniors) These ideas follow the invention of total quality management which focuses on two fundamental goals Careful design of the product (in the case of Toyota Motor Company, the vehicle) reckon that Toyota Motor Company brasss can produce this designin a reproducible manner Quality at the spring seems to be a great way for Toyota Motor Company to proceed. Quality at the source means that the person who is doing the work is taking the responsibility for making sealed the work meets specifications. As antecedently discussed, safety control will be a huge initiative for Toyota Motor Company going forward.If implemented, these recommendations can do a lot to help Toyota Motor Company increase their organisational effectiveness. As previously discussed, many organizational steps were interpreted by Akio Toyoda after these recalls. It seems that Toyota could greatly benefit from organizational learning. As stated by Operations and Supply Chain Managem ent, it has been argued that organizational learning is critical to sustaining a competitive advantage (Chase and Jacobs, 2014, p. 138). Organizational realignment was important to Toyota Motor Company after the 2010 and 2011 recalls. According to a Toyota news release in celestial latitude of 2008 organizational changes include the establishment of the at a lower placeA Government and Public affairs Group which was focused on quick response to inquiries from around the world sequence also unifying public affairs functions. An Accounting Group aimed at change the business management and financial management system of Toyota Motor Company. A Europe and Africa Operations Group intended to assist with business planning in African and Central Asia. The group was also complete to conduct business promotion events in both Europe and Africa. A labor Engineering Group aimed at increasing the strength of the quality control system for semiconductors for hybrid vehicles. The recommendati ons made are important to Toyotas future. Reorganization and creation of new groups within the organization will help Toyota to overcome these recalls.ReferencesIngram, A. (2014, Feb 12). Toyota recall 1.9 million Prius vehicles recalled to plug software glitch. Retrieved from http//www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2014/0212/Toyota-recall-1.9-million-Prius-vehicles-recalled-to-fix-software-glitch Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. (2014). Operations and bring out chain management. (14 ed.). New York, NY