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Toyota Corporation

CASE STUDY: TOYOTA CORPORATION.

INTRODUCTION:

The Toyota motor corporation is a Japanese car manufacturer, which is the world’s second largest manufacturer from general motors. Regardless of this fact it is ranked first in terms of profitability, its net worth and revenue collection. It was founded in 1937 as a subsidiary of Toyota industries.

ANALYSIS:

As a firm in the motor industry, the Toyota Corporation is also affected and or assisted by general changes within its market environment. The motor industry just like many other industries is affected by different national government policies or general industry changes.

There are some changes that have occurred within Toyota’s line of field, that have had tremendous impacts on its operations.

One of the major changes has been the emergence of china as an economic power in recent times. The emergence of china as an economic power has had the effect of boosting Toyota vehicle sales remarkably. China is now the leading purchaser of Toyota vehicles and as a result has helped to push the profits of the company even higher. This emerging market has made Toyota to be the biggest seller of vehicles globally by the start of this year. The second change that has affected the companies operations has been the recent continuing increase in global fuel prices. The continued increase in global fuel prices has caused the firm to consider introducing more fuel-efficient vehicles in its production line.

ON MATTERS OF OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS:

Opportunities and threats are part of the wider swot analysis. Swot analysis incorporates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Opportunities are external advantages accrue to a firm depending on the working of economies or other stakeholders. On the other hand, the threats are the external disadvantages that affect a firm because of its involvement with other players in the industry.

On the side of opportunities, that the Toyota Corporation can take advantage of some advantages. One of the advantages is the emergence of china as an economic power. It is surprising to note that china is also one of the fastest growing corporations for the Toyota Corporation. With continued expansion of production within the country, the company will effectively reduce logistical problems and reduce the corporation’s operations budget. In addition to this, the company is also favoured by a depreciating dollar. This has had the effect of increasing sales within the United States as well as reducing its purchasing costs.

Regardless of this fact, the company is also faced with some threats. Among these threats, one is the increasing price of global fuel prices. This has had the effect of scaling down the demand for fuel guzzlers as they are being rejected with consumers more keen on purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles. In addition to this, environmental laws and doctrines are increasingly becoming a threat to the operations of the company. This is because the required levels of pollutant waste require very costly pollution abatement materials. Furthermore, the relocation of factories to less regulated states is becoming a very costly venture as well.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The threats mentioned above can affect the firms business operations if not well addressed. What the firm needs to do is adopt new technologies and modes of production as time changes. On the first case, the firm should try to manufacture more fuel-efficient cars while the demand for them is still high. On the second issue, the firm should try to use less pollutant means of production or invoke some recycling professionals to recycle part of the firms waste into better uses.

REFERENCE:

Alan R. Rushton, John Oxley, Phil Croucher .2000.The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management. London: Kogan Page.

Mankiw, N. G. (2004), Principles of economics (3rd Ed.), Chicago, ILLIOIS: Thomson South-Western

Philip Hardwick (1982), an Introduction to Modern Economics, Longman, U.K

Rashi Glazer, Marketing in an Information-Intensive Environment: Strategic Implications of Knowledge as an Asset The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct 1991), pp. 1-19.

Why Is Toyota Failing?

Why is Toyota Failing

We have seen in recent weeks the joy with which the press seem to have jumped onto the back of Toyota when they recalled some of their vehicles due to unforeseen design faults.
Their joy seems little to do with the faults or their rectification but seems more of a celebration of the fact that the great Toyota has finally been found out.

For decades we have been assailed with tales of their profitability their invincible progress and their second to none labour record so it seems natural, in a schoolboy sort of way, to take the opportunity to lash out at them at the first sign of weakness.

What would be of greater value would be to discover the possible causes of this failure.

Much has been written about Toyota’s production system but very little has been written about the people who make that system work, the line workers and the supervisors.

Takishi Ohno, the man responsible for the creation and implementation of the Toyota way, wrote the definitive book about the system called simply “Toyota Production System.”
This book, which was written by the master, was used as the template when setting up European and North American production facilities.
It concentrates exclusively on the hard administration of a production system that produced vehicles to the customers order instead of the Western method of producing as many cars as possible as fast as possible, then trying to sell those cars to the customer.
The essential difference being that the Toyota we buy is the exact vehicle that we wanted while the equivalent western vehicle is what the car company think we want. The car is then discounted until it reaches a price where even though it is not exactly what we want, we will buy it because it is cheap.

The Toyota philosophy is so radical and requires such a change of management strategy that the change in the production process itself overshadows some even more fundamental differences between the drivers of performance in the Orient and in the West.
For this reason when Toyota went into production in the West the emphasis was on the detail of the process, not on the people who carried out that process.

Bob Nelson, the author of “Keeping Up In A Down Economy” tells us that “the average number of suggestions given by an American worker to improve the performance of his company is 1.1 per year. The same figure for a Japanese worker is 167 suggestions per year.”

This seems to indicate that there is a significant difference between the way that the Japanese worker feels about what he does and the way that the North American workers feel about what they do.

When the new Toyota plants in the West were built they slavishly tried to copy the detail of the Toyota production system without understanding the difference between the way that the workers in the East, compared to the West, felt about what they did.
Today that difference is called engagement.

Employers in the West are becoming aware of the huge value that is realised when a workforce is engaged but, other than running surveys to find out how engaged, or not, their workforce is, very few understand that it is possible to create engagement in an otherwise unengaged workforce, and fewer know how to do it.

The cars that Toyota recalled were all built in the West.

Is it possible that the faults that caused the recalls did not occur in vehicles produced in the East because they were spotted and rectified by an “engaged” workforce, while in the West the “disengaged” workforce knew of the problems but never reported them to Toyota because Western managers do not know how to engage their workforces.

Peter A Hunter
Author – Breaking the Mould
www.breakingthemould.co.uk

Toyota Prius The Ultimate Creativity in Cars

Toyota was well ahead of the curve in environmental terms, bringing the Prius to market before any other car makers had a hybrid. Toyota has not stopped progressing with the improvements of their vehicles, even despite the uncertain economy and poor market for automobile sales. Obviously the Toyota Prius is the most environmentally friendly car to purchase, not to mention that it’s user friendly, easy on the gas tank, and has great style as well as the most advanced technology available in such a vehicle.
The dynamic style of Toyota Prius is the interesting aspect which is very evident to both its interior and exterior side The intricate and highly unique design of the Toyota Prius are noticeable immediately from the outside view of the car. The comfortableness and some-what coziness only helps to accent it’s exterior beauty. This doesn’t stop there, though, because this car was not only designed for its allure but also in order to provide ease, safety and comfort whilst driving.
Toyota Prius can also be seen as an environmental friendly car since it only creates minimal emission even when one is stuck in traffic. Environmental friendly materials were also used here this is in view of the fact that instead of using plastics that are made from oil, plastics that are made from plants were used.
It is very easy to operate due to control panels within reach of the driver’s seat that allow control over many features. In fact a number of engine features can be controlled using this buttons. The new features of the Toyota Prius are advanced technology.
The push button start is one of the technology which is a pride of Prius. It exhibits the rear view monitor and DVDnavigation. Furthermore, its 46 mpg fuel consumption is its evidence of fuel efficiency.