Toyota’s Operations Manage: A Global Success Story

Joy Osborne

Operations Management

6/19/15

Notes for Group Discussion

Group Project Requirements

The group project consists of (1) a group case writing and (2) a group presentation. Based on your experience of case analysis in other courses, you will be able to develop a teaching case. You do not need special training to write a case. The main objective of the case writing is to learn real issues/problems in operations management. You are to form your own group of about 4 students. If we have many students, the number of students in a group will be adjusted. Each group can choose a topic for the case, but it has to be related to the course. You can write the case on a specific company/organization, a specific sector/industry, or a specific product/service. The group presentation of the case is scheduled for Session 7. Each group will have 20 minutes for its presentation, followed by a Q&A session. Only a few or all the members in your group can write the case and/or present it. It is up to your group to decide how the tasks are divided among the group members. The case and presentation will be graded on a group basis.

Each group is required to introduce the company's practices as a case of operations management, and does not have to provide recommendations for its future direction. The case can be a success story or a failure story, but you have to describe logical reasons why the company/product succeeded or failed. Ideally the case should be written like a story based on facts (not fiction!), but you do not have to do so. An analysis report is also fine as a case of operations management. The case should consist of AT LEAST 10 pages, and the format of the case and of the presentation slides (e.g., font size, line space, etc.) is at your discretion. You can write the case based on public information (e.g., newspaper articles, company websites, etc.) or field research (e.g., interviews with companies, mail survey with companies, etc.). Please be careful about plagiarism. You cannot simply copy sentences or information from articles or the web without citations. You are required to upload (1) the case in MS-Word with (2) MS-Powerpoint presentation slides into "Group Project" under "Assignments" on Blackboard by the beginning of Session 6. To identify your files, the filenames should be your group number (e.g., Group1.docx or Group1.doc for MS-Word reports; Group2.pptx or Group2.ppt for MS-Powerpoint slides).

The evaluation of the group project consists of my evaluation (60%) and peer evaluation (40%). I will evaluate (1) each group's case, (2) each group's presentation, and (3) each STUDENT's peer evaluation form. You will evaluate (1) each group's case except your own group and (2) each group's presentation except your own group. You are required to write comments in the peer evaluation form and select A, B, or C (i.e., Excellent, Very Good, or Good, respectively) for each of the cases and the presentations in the MCQ fo

Toyota’s Operations Manage: A Global Success Story

Toyota has a long history of having successful operations management. They have revolutionized the automotive industry even in the the companies’ infancy. In 1929, Kichiro Toyoda identified many problems of the European and United States’ operations.1 Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) later try to improve this problems through the novel concepts of just in time (JIT) engineering, Jidoka, Toyota Production System (TPS) and suppliers. 2 There admired concepts and production systems are mimic across industries.

Toyota Production System

This highly studied and revered concept has three main principles. The first being to proive customers wit the highest of quality at the lowest possible price. The second being to provide work satisfaction, job security and fair treatment. Lastly, it allows Toyota to respond to the volatility of the market easily and flexibly.

They also emphasis waste management in the area of waste reduction. They want team-members/employees to have the ability to work smoothy and efficiently. This notion is all facets of their company. This helps the employee maximize quality, improve efficiency, and reduce waste, and highlight safety.  

Just-in-time (JIT)

The term Just-in-time which is widely used in operations originated from Toyota. The idea comes from the laws of supply and demand. All the vehicles and their suppliers are made when needed. The calculate this from analyzing takt time. Takt time is where a company quantifies the rate of sales in the market in relation to production capacity.  

In a nutshell, basically have the right number of parts, without excess, in inventory. Having large amount of inventory, is costly for the company. Storing parts costs in means of company space. To store these parts, adds additional unnecessary costs.