Toyota : Looking Far Into the Future Essay

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Pages: 11

Cumpolsory Case : “Toyota : Looking Far into the Future”
A Brief History of Toyota 1) Toyota begins work on small car, a niche neglected by Detroit a. Toyopet is introduced in 1947. b. Reinvest profits from small cars into research and development 2) In 1957, Toyota performs its first American road test a. Modified Toyopet performs poorly, failing the road test due to heat and vibration b. Start over and by 1960 Toyota has a new Toyopet that can withstand American conditions 3) Research and development results in Corona, introduced in 1965 a. Sell 6,388 models in 1965 b. Toyota introduces the smaller Corolla in 1968 i. Toyota

Another bonus payment related to team’s performance 3. Additional bonus payment allocated to worker’s merit 4. Wage would increase from 85% to 115% from amount allocated iv. In return, Toyota employees are constantly committed to making improvements rather than just responding to problem b. Relationship i. Establishing mutual trust between management and laborers to prevent slacking ➢ Goal was to improve all parts of production and quality ➢ Unit costs, Speed of assembly, delivery schedule, etc. ii. Good relationship and team work resulted in ➢ Devoted, enthusiastic, conscientious employees ➢ Increased efficiency and a higher level of production a. Many employees hung out after hours contributing ideas about reorganizing and improving production (Of 860,000 ideas, 94% adopted 2) 4) Factory Operations a. Production i. Toyota believed mass production was inefficient. It wasted materials, effort, time and money ii. Toyota moves toward lean production b. Production efficiency and employees i. Workers in “Kaizen teams” ➢ Kaizen teams stayed together for a