Toyota Paper

Describe a major global corporation: (1) a leading manufacturer or (2) a major retail or restaurant business. Describe the type of business, market share, financials, size, and global presence.

Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1919 by the famous Japanese inventor, Saki chi Toyoda. Its primary business is manufacturing and selling automobiles. With operations in the U.S. for the past 50 years, Toyota is one of the most well known automobile manufacturers in the world. In fact, it is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, producing over 7 million units in the last financial year. (Liker, 2008) During this time it reported a profit of over $5 billion dollars. It is a multinational corporation with its corporate office located in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. Toyota currently employs roughly 310,000 people around the world. (2010)

The Toyota Way and the Toyota Production system are what make up Toyota's DNA.

The Toyota Way can be summarized two ways: continuous improvement and respect for people. (Liker & Hoseus, 2008) Continuous improvement is translated as Kaizen which is huge in the Toyota culture where this means challenge everything. (2008)

Toyota is also responsible for the invention of the term "lean production" sometimes called the Toyota Production System or TPS. (Liker, 2005, p. 115) This invention has triggered a global transformation in just about every industry to Toyota's manufacturing and supply chain philosophy and methods for over a decade. The company has won awards for being the best in class by both its peers and competitors throughout the world. Toyota automobiles have consistently been at the top of quality rankings by J.D. Power and Associates, Consumer Reports and many others for years. (2011)

For many years, Toyota was the top auto maker in Japan and a number 4 in the U.S. behind the Big 3 auto makers (Ford, GM, and Chrysler). For the first time in 2003 Toyota sold more vehicles than one its competitors (Chrysler). The Toyota Camry is now the top selling vehicle in the U.S. and the Toyota. Toyota has also become a leader in luxury car sales with the Lexus brand outselling BMW, Cadillac and Mercedes Benz for 3 years in a row (Liker, 2008)

Describe the company's production or operations management.

During the 1950s Toyota laid the foundations for a new system of manufacturing vehicles. This was developed into the Toyota Production System often called (TPS) is an exceptionally efficient set of principles that has been used widely and adapted within the auto industry and beyond. The Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two concepts: The term "Jidoka" (which is loosely translated as "automation with a human touch") this means that when a problem occurs, an alarm is sounded and the equipment stops immediately. This prevents the production of defective products and the computer tracks back to the issue. The second is the "Just-in-time" concept of in which each process produces only what is needed. This helps eliminate waste. Based on basic philosophies of Jidoka and Just-in-Time, the TPS can efficiently and quickly produce vehicles of sound quality, one at a time, that fully satisfy customer requirements. (Wren, 1998)

Toyota as an automobile manufacturer definitely has to have quality control, and it has to be objective, measured against an accepted standard. Toyota's way of measuring quality is continuous improvement or in Japanese terms, Kaizen. (2010) Toyota quality management is also tightly related to their Just-in-time system. (2010)

Describe and evaluate the company's use of teams in production and operations management.

The company wide culture Toyota embodies is the key ingredient in its success as the global leader in operational excellence. With the Toyota Way culture, it's employees who bring it all to life: coming together as a team to improve communication, find and resolve issues, and growing together as a team. Well the Toyota Way goes way beyond this. Using a very intricate design, it encourages, supports, and demands employee involvement in almost every process. Team work is key here. It is a culture at Toyota. (Liker and Hoseus, 2008) Management depends on the workers to reduce inventory, find problems, and fix them. The workers use teamwork and have a sense of purpose because if they don't fix the problem then there will be a problem down the line which will lead to an inventory shortage. Day in, day out, managers, machine workers, quality specialists, vendors, machine operators are all involved in continuous problem solving and improvement. (2008)

One tool that facilitates this teamwork is called 5S this stands for sort, stabilize, shine, standardize, and sustain. ( These activities are used to eliminate the wastes that contribute to injuries, mistakes, and defects. With these methods in place, especially, sustain, which is arguably the hardest and the one that keeps the first four S's in place by emphasizing the necessary training, and rewards needed to encourage workers to properly maintain and continuously improve procedures in the workplace environment. Efforts like these require a combination of committed management, proper training, and a culture that makes sustaining improvement a learned behavior from the floor to top level management. (Liker, 2005)

Analyze and evaluate the company's ability to adjust to a major economic, environmental, or natural crisis (such as the real estate crash, financial crisis, nuclear meltdown, hurricane, flood, oil spill, etc.) and communicate effectively with their employees and customers about issues caused by the crisis.

In 2009 Toyota