Introduction
Toyota Motor Corporation is an automotive manufacturing company that was founded in 1937 in Japan. It mainly deals with designing, manufacturing, assembling, and selling of various automotives such as cars, commercial vehicles and minivans (Monden, 1983). There main target area is Japan, European countries, Asian states, and northern America. The various production brands are Hino, Toyota, Lexus, and Daihatsu. It undebatable that Toyota Motor Corporation is by no chance the leading manufacturer of automotive and position eight worldwide. It has absorbed an approximate of three hundred and thirty-three thousand, four hundred ad ninety-eight individuals as its employees. The success of Toyota Motor Corporation Company in both the Japanese market and the international market is due to its desire to me high-quality products that have a competitive edge over others (Monden, 1983). The Japanese people are in a constant rush to improve the quality of everything they lay their hands on summarized by the word Kaizen which implies continuous improvement. This is the magical word that drives them towards perfection.
Strategies employed by Toyota
Japanese specialists are at the center of developing strategies implemented by Toyota Company in its production and manufacturing processes. KAIZEN is the most popular strategy used by Toyota and other Japanese companies in their production (Berger, 1997). This word means continuous improvement and directly impacts on the quality of products. This is an integrated strategy involving stepwise improvement, progressive business activities, and managerial skills, key areas of quality as well as competitive advantage over other manufacturers. This strategy directly involves all staff members in the chain. This particular strategy is quality centered, creative in coming up with new technologies, conducts research on emerging technological issues, and stresses on hard work. Toyota is now a leading company in research works developing more complex technologies in the automotive sector. The rapid and smart responses developed by Toyota is a remarkable effort in solving challenges facing the automotive sector. This puts the future of the automotive industry in its best position ever (Lander, & Liker 2007).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The current talks on environmental pollution that is air pollution is an area that Toyota has majored on in its research and development works. Hybrid cars are thus central in solving environmental pollution menace. These cars make use of different energy sources apart from fossil fuels which are a major environmental pollutant. The company has developed improved engine that can combine two energy sources. This type of technology is referred to as hybrid technology and is on the forefront of Toyota’s quest to realize a green machine. That is a machine that has less environmental impact. The continuous fight for unique solutions greatly borrows from new concepts in technology developed by this company. It is to their best interest that new technologies have to be constantly developed and tested in our daily lives. The company through its quest has managed to come up with the Fine-N engine that encompasses a fuel cell or CS & S roadster making use of Hybrid Interaction Drive system.
Toyota Company boosts of its ability to fabricate and manufacture its engines taking into account the new technologies developed. The highly qualified engineers employed by the company has come up with a varying range of engine performance with current technological designs incorporated reflecting on the high standards that have been set by their specialized team. The engines have been developed to minimize emissions and take into account comfortability as well. They use fuel efficiently for several designed mileages. The various advancements made by Toyota are as follows; development of gasoline engines, VV-I valves that are variable control valves, special turbocharged engines that make use of a common rail, and a unique propulsion drive system.
Toyota is a ccompany that puts safety first (Shingo & Dillon, 1989). This is incorporated in its design of steering wheels. The steering system is of advanced stage, together with the brakes, traction control, and the brakes system. Each of the earlier mentioned component and systems are designed with safety in mind. A computer simulation program is used to ascertain that required standards have been met. Impact when driving is constantly controlled by the absorption ability of the chassis and the suspension system. The chassis is also made strong so as to offer highest possible protection to the occupant. Airbags systems are used to absorb impact and thus protect the occupant as well. For years, Toyota has made significant steps towards design and production for safety both in the active mode and passive mode. The developments for safety dates back in 1991 when the first active suspension system was made, followed by a stability control system way back in 1995, to the launch of a curtain airbag system in 1998. This company is in the forefront of ensuring and guaranteeing safety, security, and new technological improvements to its clients.
It is,therefore, right to conclude that the main strategy of Toyota is based on exclusive control of quality by utilizing the ‘zero defects’ and progressive improvement of its accessories and products.
Toyota has there since conducted studies on what its consumers need most, therefore,gaining confidence from them coupled with the high performance of the Toyota vehicles Euro NCAP safety tests. For these same reasons, the customers of Toyota cars are comfortable driving in their products. This is accredited to the levels of quality standards maintained by the company in the production and design of the cars (Shingo & Dillon, 1989).
The quest for high standards by Toyota has been extended to market research which offers a promising future to the success of the company. Allover European continent, the company has set up research centers, new plants, and workshops for design purposes. Ideas and vision are incorporated in new vehicle designs by Toyota designers (Lander & Liker, 2007).
To implement its quality strategies and processes, Toyota developed a production system based on two concepts. These are just in time which implies that a product is only produced when it is required in the next stage of manufacturing and secondly Jidoka which emphasizes that when a problem occurs, the production of subsequent parts has to be terminated to stop the spread of defects to other subsequent components. This is locally termed as manufacturing of components with a human touch. With this strategy in place, Toyota has continuously produced high-quality products that dominate the market and at the same time ensuring customer satisfaction.
Toyota at points has been faced with numerous problems in the implementation of its continuous improvement processes termed as Kaizen (Shingo & Dillon, 1989). The challenges have been constantly overcome by using phrases such as ‘please try’ and ‘do your best’ that encourage employees to tap the enormous power of solving problems in groups, analyzing data and progressive improvement of processes so as to realize success. Kaizen has, therefore, been on the forefront in maintain quality and upholding Toyota’s production system (TPS). The various tools in TPS have been effective in solving problems faced by the company, and it is evident in the production levels, labor and statistics in the capital since 2004. Toyota has also been greatly hit by recalling of its vehicles. Models such has Toyota and Lexus were recalled to have their floor mats replaced and to change the accelerator pedals that were sticky. This impacted on the openness of the company with the company and also threatened the long built trust the company had built over the years. After the recall crisis, Toyota embraced the hensi principle by admitting mistakes and avoiding throwing blames on others. Also, the position of the regional chief quality officer was created that deals with quality and safety related issues.
Just in time aims at producing products of high quality in a continuous process by eliminating waste and keeping it as low as possible whereas Jidoka is central on ensuring quality is maintained during the process of manufacturing. With jidoka, the machine is mandatorily stopped with detection of a fault or malfunctioning of the equipment stopping the production process so as to give time to the operators to correct the mess. Jidoka also extends to when the operator is faced with a problem he is supposed to stop the process rather than letting the component do.
Conclusion
Toyotas total quality management is based on the principles of Kaizen which puts the customer first (Shingo & Dillon, 1989). This principle focusses on continuous improvement in line with belief of the Japanese people whereby the thin that no object is so good that it cannot be improved. The challenges faced in the production line of Toyota have been solved by developing a Toyota production system based on two approaches that are just in time and jidoka systems that concentrate on manufacturing one item at a time and stopping manufacturing of a component upon detection of a defect respectively. The ‘hensi’ principle and creation of regional chief control officer post were the result of the great recall challenge of Toyota cars due to floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals. Toyota has managed to produce a very high-quality products for its consumers. So as to meet the customers demand on quality, Toyota includes its entire task force in quality control undertakings.
References
Berger, A. (1997). Continuous improvement and kaizen: standardization and organizational designs. Integrated manufacturing systems, 8(2), 110-117.
Lander, E., & Liker, J. K. (2007). The Toyota Production System and art: making highly customized and creative products the Toyota way. International Journal of Production Research, 45(16), 3681-3698.
Monden, Y. (1981). What makes the Toyota production system really tick? Industrial Engineering, 13(1), 36-46.
Monden, Y. (1983). Toyota production system. Favor de rectificar.
Monden, Y. (1981). What makes the Toyota production system really tick? Industrial Engineering, 13(1), 36-46.
Shingo, S., & Dillon, A. P. (1989). A study of the Toyota production system: From an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint. CRC Press.
