Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The effects of war
After effects of war
Japanese automotive industry
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The effects of war
Who would have thought that a business as large as Toyota would have stemmed from an Automated Loom invention? Sakichi Toyoda wanted to make a positive contribution to society, with watching his mother wove cloth by hand, Sakichi set out to improve the weave industry. Sakichi invented a winding machine and opened his own business to sell it. However, Japan’s economy took a turn for the worse and Sakichi was forced to resign from the company. Misfortune did not cease him. He continued with his innovations which led to him and his son, Kiichiro, inventing a fully automatic loom. They started their own textile business known as Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. Sakichi traveled to the United States and Europe to study the textile industry and that is when his interest for the automobile began. Japan lacked an automobile manufacturer. Japan relied heavily on imports from the Big Three: Ford, GM, and Chrysler. When he returned to Japan, Kiichiro set aside a corner of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works for completing research on producing a small engine. Through much trial and error, …show more content…
Postwar Japan faced great hardships and Toyota felt the effects. Toyota was in financial trouble and faced restructuring or bankruptcy. The president of Toyota, Kiichiro Toyoda, tried everything to prevent employee layoffs, but it was inevitable, if the company was to be saved. With Japan being a collectivist society this action was unheard of. Kiichiro met with the employees and after that meeting there was 1,600 voluntary retirements. Feeling responsible for the turmoil, Kiichiro Toyoda resigned from being president to show respect to the workers. Toyota’s management team needed to regain the trust of the employees and vowed that the event would never happen again in Toyota. To obtain financial assistance Toyota Motor Corporation had to separate the sales from the production operations. Hence, Toyota Motor Sales Co, Ltd was
Cars changed the way people lived, worked, and enjoyed leisure time; however, what most people don’t realize is that the process of manufacturing automobiles had an equally significant impact on industry. The creation of the moving assembly line by Henry Ford at his Highland Park plant, introduced on December 1, 1913, revolutionized the automobile industry and the concept of manufacturing worldwide.
Ford’s concept of an assembly line sprang from the thought that a car could be produced much quicker if each person did one, single task. He applied this in his Highland Park plant, and cut down production time of one Model T to a fraction on the time. The carefully timed pace of a conveyer belt moving the parts along further speeded the process. With these new tactics, a factory could produce 40%-60% more cars per month. By late 1913 he had established assembly plants in Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, and Japan. At this point, the Ford Motor Company was the largest manufacturer of cars in the world.
The birth of the automobile was truly something special. Once a far fetched dream is now what many people believe to be the back bone of the American economy. When people think about the automobile the name that comes to mind is most usually Henry Ford. Although he is not credited with the invention of the automobile, Henry Ford played a crucial role in the development of mass production. The automobile was first invented Europe in 1771 with a top speed of 2.3 miles per hour. A man by the name of Gottliech Daimler produced what was known as the milestone car in 1889, this vehicle traveled at 10 miles per hour (Brown, 105). Not more then a handful of these cars were produced over seas. Not many people had ever seen one, let alone had one. It wasn’t until Henry Ford invented the assembly line, that anyone knew what a car was. Henry Ford and the invention of the assembly line altered the American economy and revolutionized travel everywhere.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A. (TMM) is deviating from the standard assembly line principle of jidoka in an attempt to avoid expenses incurred from stopping the production line for seat quality defects. This deviation has contributed to the inability to identify the root cause of the problem, which has led to decreased run ratios on the line and an excess of defective automobiles in the overflow lot for multiple days. If this problem isn’t fixed quickly, an increased amount of waste will continue to be incurred and customer value will be threatened.
The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive and challenging. In the recent past, manufacturers have found themselves facing the threat of dwindling profit margins due to unfortunate global events such as the 2007 global financial crisis and the on going Europe economic crisis. The need to improve operation efficiency so as to ensure current and future investment yield the highest rate of return has therefore become extremely important. Manufacturers are now actively engaged in, managing their costs, Research and Development, adopting best procurement strategies, among other Actions. While such actions might eventually lead to positive results, additional business value can be achieved through proper management of the supply chain (Waymer, Ivanaj & Mussa 2009; Krivda 2004).
As one of the leading automobile manufacturers in the world, Toyota ranks within the top three worldwide. Due to their unique business model, they are now have a market share of 14% in the first four months of this year. That is an astonishing 2.3% jump from the previous year. According to Autodata.com, the Toyota City based automaker ranks fourth in United States sales.
This case depicts about the success stories of the collaboration in the automobile industry by the Japanese and US firm though they were obviously competitors. One significant success story emerging from the alliance involves Ford probe and Mazda MX-6. There were swapping of resources and capabilities between the two firms. Mazda designers design the basic platform, engine and drive train for the cars. Mazda then design the outside of the MX-6 and Ford does same for the probe. Finally both cars are assembled at a factory owned by the two firms. Ford escort was another successful offspring of the alliance where again the Mazda engineers designed the car and Ford made it. But the alliance was not without spots. Mazda Navaho one of the offspring of the alliance which was basically build upon the on of the Ford popular product Ford explorer and build by the Ford makers. Ford made an opposite step by denying to provide the Japanese partners Navaho production to continue production of its own product line. The partner Mazda in addition fell into financial distress and Ford got the effective management control of Mazda and took some bold steps which eventually went against the collaboration.
For over fifty years, Toyota has established over 50 bases in 26 different countries and regions. Their automobiles have found their way into over 170 countries across the entire globe. In addition, Toyota has design and R&D bases in nine locations overseas, with this they prove that they have achieved consistent globalization as well as localization. The most important part in any Toyota base is the quality assurance. They don’t stamp their product with “Made in the USA” or “Made in Japan”, but instead opt for one label for all: “Made by TOYOTA.” This shows that the product is made in the “Toyota Way.” To achieve this, the company minimized support that comes from Japan to let each of their foreign locations become self-reliant. For example, a Toyota plant recently began production in Texas has made maximum use of its sibling’s experience in Kentucky which has been cultivated over the past 20 years. Toyota believes that in order to reach their goals is through educating people. Multiple Global Production Centers have been built within Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, in United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand to carry our corresponding activities in the Asia-Pacific, European, and North American regions. To promote the “Toyota Way”, the Toyota Institute established an internal human resources development organization in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. As you can see the pros of the globalization of Toyota are endless. This company alone has created millions of jobs across the world. Winners are not only the workers, but also the buyers, without globalization Toyota automobiles would only be available in Japan. Many people, including me, see globalization of this kind as a beneficial and advantageous result. Toyota companies have not only created jobs for thousands if not millions of people, but their
Its objective is to integrate people, process, and technology. Toytoa’s product development procedure is essentially different from a manufacturing process. Its backbone is not visible, but knowledge and information which are untouchable. The product development’s cycle time is much longer than hours. It usually takes weeks or even months. The production chains are non-linear and multi-directional. Workers are no longer manufacturing workers but specialists with high diverse technology. This product development strategy is viable for Toyota. This is because this strategy does help Toyota to prolong the life cycle of current product. For instance, Toyota Camry is a very successful current product which is prolonged its life. Camry has been made since 1980s. Camry is set at an middle-high level of family veichle. After 30 years development, Camry is still very famous all over the world. This cannot be separeted by Toyota’s successful product development strategy. One of the key features of the Toyota product development system is functional engineering managers. They are primarily teachers in the Toyota system, who are the most technically competent engineers, with the highest levels of experience. Toyota’s management group is consist of high educated experts. They were all engineers and their technical excellence is very famous. But recently, Toyota’s product development system does not work very well. In
These issues led to Toyota losing much of its brand equity as a leader in safety. According to an article in Time Magazine from February 2010, the automaker didn't just have safety issues in 2009 that led to the recalls, there had been smaller recalls for similar issues nearly every year since 2002. Historically, Toyota has been an organization that can take problems, root out their cause and turn the solutions into advantages over competitors. In this case, Toyota's complete lack of crisis management led to a major loss for the company both in 2009-2010 sales but something more precious and long-term, brand equity.
Toyota issues in automotive industry resulted from a lack of moral and ethical obligations to loyal customers. In fact, people encounter ethics at one time or another. A business expectation is to act in manner upholding society values. According to authors Trevino and Nelson, (2004) states, “a set of moral principals or values, or the principals, norm, and standards of conduct governing a group or individual.” On the other hand, three ethical criteria determined in this discussion like obligation, moral ideas, and consequences which this article highlights an ethical dilemma with automobiles makers.
When Soichiro Honda was a young boy; he always had a great interest in the field of automobiles. In Japan he worked as mechanic in a tuning shop. In his earlier time of carrier he made pistons designs for Toyota which later on were rejected because of flaws indication in them. But he did not give up, he started from the scratch build the pistons again and this time he was able to overcome the flaws which were indicated earlier in his piston designs. This was accepted by the Toyota and they offered him a contract to make pistons for them.
Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the largest automakers in the world. At its annual conference in Tokyo on May 8, 2008, the company announced that activities through March 2008 generated a sales figure of $252.7 billion, a new record for the company. However, the company is lowering expectations for the coming year due to a stronger yen, a slowing American economy, and the rising cost of raw materials (Rowley, 2008). If Toyota is to continue increasing its revenue, it must examine its business practice and determine on a course of action to maximize its profit.
After General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corporation is the second largest automotive maker around the globe; although, Toyota ranks in first place in profit, revenue and net worth. Toyota was established by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937, as a by-product of Sakichi Toyoda's Toyota Industries Company, to produce Toyota automobiles. Headquartered in Bunkyo Tokyo, Japan (as well as Toyota, Aichi); Toyota offers pecuniary services with their Toyota Financial Services division. Toyota Industries, along with Toyota Motor Corporation, make up the Toyota Group. The Toyota Group consists of Daihatsu Motors, Scion, Lexus, Fuji Industries, Yamaha Motors, Isuzu Motors and of course, Toyota Motors.
2. What is the difference between a.. We noted that SSM Health Care learned from manufacturing companies in their quality journey. What can nonmanufacturing companies learn and apply from Toyota’s philosophy and practices? Suggest specific things that education and government might learn.