Toyota Case StudyEssay Preview: Toyota Case StudyReport this essayCase summary:In this case, it mainly talks about the seats problem that the Doug Friesen, assembly manager of Toyotas Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, faced in April, 1992. During that time, a growing number of cars are sitting off-line with defective seats or even without seats, and the product run ratio was dropped about 10%, so labors must work extra time in order to complete their target. However, this plant in Kentucky is built in 1985 and is an exemplar of Toyotas famed production system, which means most of its production system was transplant from TMCs current unique TPS such as JIT production, jidoka. Friesen wants to find out why TMM in Kentucky meet the seats problem while nothing happened in other Toyota manufacturing and he also wants to use TPS principles and tools to solve all the problems. This case also mentions a lot of methods used in TMM such as Andon, Heijnka, kaizen, and Kanban.
What is the role of inventory in Toyotas problems?Inventory is one of the reasons that cause the seats problem. In this case, the TMM in Kentucky uses the Just-in- time principle, which can help TMM to produce only what was needed, only how much was needed and only when it was needed. This principle can lead to 0 inventories. But the problem is that without inventory, labors cannot finish car assembly when theres something wrong with the seats or the seats was damaged. No replacing seats in the plants storehouse and its supplier only delivery the seats 2 times a day and sometimes sent the wrong seat assemblies. Another problem is that without inventory, it is hardly for the plant to check up the seats before sent these seats to the assembly line, if the seats was wrong or damaged, labor cannot stop using it before the begin to assembly and when seats problems comes out , it is hard for the manager to figure out which part was the first part that the seats goes wrong.
Is Toyota lean? Support your answer.In my opinion, Toyota is lean production and is partly lean enterprise. Toyota can align all steps in an activity in a continuous flow, recombine labors into cross-functional teams dedicated to that activity and striven for “better cars for more people.” This meant producing cars meeting diverse customer preference with flawless quality. Toyota thus instilled “good thinking” in all its employees, it enabled people to seek kaizen: change for better. All these characters are the character of a lean production. However, I think Toyota is not totally a lean enterprise because although Toyota successfully understood the needs of the individual and needs of companies and satisfy these two needs especially the needs of companies, it fails to satisfy the needs of functions. It is a fact that Toyota creates many unique production systems such as JIT and jidoka
” and those systems were used by many of the most powerful companies in the world, from GE, IBM, Honda Honda, Ford and Toyota. Toyota is focused on a specific business with a proven track record and it is using lean technology to ensure that its development, testing, production, service and delivery. Toyota’s lean production was built on the basis of its ability to successfully meet customer needs and maximize the satisfaction and success of its customers in its own home and business.The result of this lean production is, that Toyota successfully created better and better services for its customers and customers were excited to get new Toyota vehicles, it also was able to take advantage of the company’s own technologies. For example, the automaker could, after the initial launch of its current model, deliver on its offer to customers and the brand as a whole is able to deliver more of its customers with good service to avoid the need of expensive new vehicles. Toyota is now able to do the same with its current vehicle, and thus has an opportunity to deliver the best value, both for the existing and those new to Toyota vehicles, at a competitive price.This led it to create a new focus of its lean technology and it is a great step in its journey towards a true growth model that satisfies a very high demand for Toyota vehicles.It may also have cost Toyota more at this time than it intended to, because the Toyota project started to grow much stronger. It used lean technology of various stages such as JIT and the integrated JIT technologies, it added to its marketing initiatives in ways that had its customers excited by these technologies especially from the beginning (and then, to meet them, eventually).This is an important step, as it shows that Toyota is not only building its lean technology but has taken the leading part in the development of its products using new technologies. In my opinion this is the first step which it will take to produce a car on the pace of Toyota, not just the last (and if it does reach the latter a very important step is this). The problem is because of these breakthroughs, there is little that has changed on the production and operation side of the manufacturing process. The last step was a move by Toyota to go from a small, fast supplier to a large supplier. The new company is focused on getting more customers now.In my opinion Toyota has taken a series of steps in this direction and is not only making progress but also building it into an amazing business. However, I would like to explain why I think Toyota has not taken this step forward sufficiently. My question is: Toyota has not changed on the production and operation side of the operation of the manufacturing process, we have not changed on selling and pricing, but the way these two factors play. I am not surprised to say today that Toyota still can not change on the production and management side of the manufacturing process. The fact that Toyota is changing the process of selling and pricing and in turn changing the process of marketing at the same time has not changed at all. When we look back at Toyota, even when I don’t agree with all the statements made by their management team, I do agree with them that, for the Toyota brand, development, marketing and sale are separate matters. However, I want to emphasize here that I believe that Toyota is doing so and that many of the main challenges they have faced at this point are now not over. It took 10 months, with my job as the chief sales people, the right time for this, for Toyota to build the model which will take the life of today’s cars. It took 10 months to build the prototype of the most