After general Motor, Toyota is the world second largest and Japan’s biggest selling car company. Per year its predictable fabrication of vehicle is eight million and as compared to general motor it produces less about a million.
The company vision is to do the right things not only for the company itself but for the customers, employees and as a society whole. That’s why company produces large amount of vehicles which are highly publicized for their feature, manufacturing and preservation. In United States and Europe both, Toyota is linked with and has a good number of market shares and also has shares with several developing South East Asian countries.
Their designs have been functioning upon universal standards for safety, maintenance and trustworthiness. With about 40% of all new cars which have been registered in 2004 as Toyotas hence the company dominates its home market.
BACKGROUND OF TOYOTA:
The Toyota motor corporation was founded in 1933 by Kiichiro Toyoda. It basically started from his father’s company Toyoda industries. The first vehicle, the AA Toyota was manufactured in 1936 and then the brand is recognized as an independent company afterwards in 1937 it changes its name to Toyota. The company opened their first factory but it has to stop the production during World War II.
Today the Toyota group is well known due to its cars and still doing business in textiles and also making automated looms. In 1950 the Toyota motor sales company was introduced and in 1982 Toyota sales and Toyota motor company merged into one company.
For the purpose of commercial marketing Toyota are developing hybrid vehicles and currently are the largest corporations. As per vehicle produced earning of Toyota is $1250 simultaneously general motor loses $2311 per vehicle and today Toyota is earning more than all the rest of the 12 largest auto manufacturers and also working for reducing the consumption of gasoline and greenhouse gases.
TOYOTA OPERATION STRATEGY:
The success of Toyota makes it the largest company of the world even their competitors were losing out although it is the matter which is need to be seen very crucially in order to achieve that respect and recognition. After lots of researches it is being known to others and throughout the world regarding the Toyota way of production. The success of Toyota Company is mainly due to following and some certain possessions.
1. Toyota Production System
2. Re-engineering
3. Superior Technology & Quality
4. Hybrid Vehicles
5. Employee Welfare Costs
6. Employee Satisfaction
A large company like Toyota must have strong business strategy in order to enlighten their company especially on production system. The lean manufacturing (just-in-time, andan, kaizen, jikoda, kanban and pull system) is the part of production system and its aim is to eliminate waste in every part of the production including customers, less inventory, less human effort, decrease time for the manufacturing of the product, product design, factory management but keeping all these things in mind and to fulfill customers demand by giving them top quality products. Just-in-time is one of the philosophies of Toyota and it is one of the methods of eliminating waste through which inventory levels can be reduced.
The kaizen is the key element of Toyota production system and it works for continuous improvement. Basically it analyze the environment where employees and companies work together in order to bring betterment in manufacturing process. Jikoda the term used for lean manufacturing works on detecting any defect or abnormality in the product as it works to improve quality control process and andan is to stop the production if any defect is observed and every employee is empowered to do that through this individual have an opportunity to come up and made decisions confidently.
For the success of Toyota the one of the major factor is re-engineering. Through which the model which fails in the market they re-engineered it by altering that fail model but using the same production facility. In order to ensure its quality, functioning and design superior technology and quality is being used where even robots are also working. Robots are using according to the profitability for mass production. To ensure its quality control and production every individual employee is responsible to see every part of the vehicle very cautiously that it is fitted accurately or not and the inspection is done vigorously by every team member if they find any defect in the material so they can immediately stop the production and find its root causes to resolve that problem. This process usually takes 27 hours to its team members for monitoring and inspecting the vehicle well but General motor takes 34 hours for producing the vehicle.
Toyota Companies have won lots of awards and recognition for manufacturing facilities and quality production all around the word. The company is gaining a lot due to the production of hybrid car vehicle which makes the market skyrocketing and growing very rapidly. Hybrid engines have been made in such a manner that it is less costly to run and more fuel efficient. Hybrid car vehicle is being mostly used in US and the world’s first commercially and marketed hybrid automobile is Toyota Prius and the second was Honda civic hybrid. The world’s other automakers have also identified the success of Toyota is mainly due to hybrid car vehicle.
Toyota company not only work for its self but also ensuring the employee satisfaction, participation in order to benefit both the company and employee which is important for successful total productive maintenance (TPM). Group activities are usually encouraged among team members for the productivity of work. There are two main aspects of TPM training and open communication between operators and engineering. Routine maintenance has been performed by production personnel and employee participation is ensuring through program incentives and suggestion schemes. It is being observed that Toyota has a more numbers of satisfied employees as compare to General Motors and Ford.
CONCLUSION:
All over Toyota Company is skyrocketing in the market and the biggest Japanese company in the world, the journey started in 1933 and still in continuation. It is all due to the use of production system, superior technology and quality products and to ensure customers regarding to combat with high gas prices.
