Fluent Essays

Homework in Introduction to Organizations. It is a one question homework of discussion case. The discussion case and the question are attached. Please follow the requirements. More resourses will be provided. mgmt_340_week_2_discussion_board_case_.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview WEEK 2 CASE DISCUSSION LEAN, MEAN DRIVING MACHINE: THE CASE OF TOYOTA Instructions: 1) Your initial post i.e. your answer to the case question should be made by Thursday, 11:59 pm. It must be at least 100 words. [2.5 points] 2) Your reply post i.e. your response/thoughts to someone else’s post should be made by Saturday, 11:59 pm. It must be at least 100 words. [2.5 points] 3) No late posts are accepted and if you make the initial post and reply post on the same day, you lose 1 point in this week’s case discussion. Evaluation criteria i. Thoroughness (Did you answer the question?) ii. Learning (Did you apply learning points from the topics?) iii. Writing (Was your post and reply free of typos and grammatical errors?) iv. Professionalism (Was your post respectful to the perspectives of others?). Toyota Motor Corporation has been enjoying the enviable position of being referred to as the gold standard of the automotive industry. In 2014, the company was the largest automaker in the world, had over 300,000 employees, and was among the top 20 companies in the world based on revenue. Headquartered in Tokyo City, Toyota Motor Corporation is the maker of Toyota, Lexus, and Scion, with its hybrid electric Prius brand becoming a status symbol in affluent and environmentally conscious neighborhoods. By 2018, Toyota had over 369,000 employees. Toyota owes its success largely to its manufacturing system. Toyota Production System (TPS), or originally named “just-in-time” production, allows Toyota to deliver raw materials and supplies to the assembly line exactly at the time they are to be used. TPS is now commonly known as lean manufacturing, and its principles transformed businesses including the retail giant Amazon, hospitals, banks, and airlines. The system has a lot of components, including kaizen, or the idea of continuous improvement and always questioning how things are done; kanban, or just-in-time production; and the and on cord, where assembly line workers are empowered to pull a cord and stop the manufacturing line when they see a problem. Ultimately, the fundamental idea behind TPS is respect for customers and employees, where front line employees are empowered to provide the best products and services with minimum waste. Production systems are only as good as company cultures, and success of a business requires both. The years 2009 and 2010 were fraught with safety crises for Toyota, resulting in the recall of more than 6 million vehicles due to accelerator pedals that got stuck. The resulting criminal investigation led to an eventual settlement of $1.2 billion in 2014 with the Justice Department. The recall crisis (and the slow response to it) was a major hit to the reputation of the company. In 2011, Toyota struggled with the aftermath of an earthquake in Japan, which derailed production. The global financial crisis was a hit to the company’s profits as well. What had happened? One key issue was the rapid growth of the company. Expansion strained resources across the organization and slowed response time. Toyota’s CEO, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of its founder, conceded, “Quite frankly, I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick.” The company had begun to put growth-related goals in front of quality goals, rewarding those who reached their growth-related metrics. Rapid growth also meant that the company had to hire new employees quickly with little time spent on training them in the “Toyota way,” and had to hire a large number of contract employees. These changes in the composition of employees meant that communication, coordination, and trust suffered. Another key problem was the centralized, Japanese-controlled organizational structure. At the time of the crisis, Toyota was a highly centralized organization that did not delegate much authority or decision-making power to its operations in the United States, even though the U.S. market provided two-thirds of its profits. Every time there was a quality issue that necessitated a recall, the problem needed to be communicated to the headquarters using a highly bureaucratic process, and then the headquarters would provide the solution. All U.S. executives were assigned a Japanese boss to mentor them, and no Toyota executive in the United States was authorized to issue a recall. Most information flow was one way, back to Japan where decisions were made. Often, the upper management dismissed quality concerns raised by lower management. In short, Toyota had become too bureaucratic, too centralized, and too big for the challenges it was facing. There seems to be cause for hope, however. Akio Toyoda, who had become the CEO at the beginning of the safety scandal, seems to be taking steps to turn around the structure and culture. Seen as an atypical Japanese executive (for example, he was educated at Babson College in the United States), Toyoda took action in order to create a more responsive company. Recognizing the role of groupthink, insularity, and slow decision making, the company restructured to decentralize. Under the new structure, North America, South America, Europe, and Africa now report to regional CEOs. The company also appointed its first outside directors, bringing in nonJapanese and non-Toyota voices to allow more diverse opinions to reach the CEO. While it is too soon to see if these changes are sincere and successful, seeing every crisis as a learning opportunity is certainly consistent with the continuous improvement philosophy of Toyota. Case Question What are the pros and cons of Toyota’s structure? What elements of business would you suggest remaining the same and what elements might need revising? ... Purchase answer to see full attachment