Engineering Management at Toyota

Engineering Management at ToyotaToyota Motor throne is the second macrost producer of cars in the world. It has its headquarters in Japan and is put in in a large number of countries around the world. This multinational connection was established by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. It was formed as a military pick out of a spin-off from a attach to known as Toyota Industries which was possess by his father. At present, the confederation leads a group composed of 522 subsidiaries.Toyota has in addition ventured in to other fields of pipeline like financial service and yieldion of robots in addition to its motorcar production operations. The club, in combination with its p bent group-Toyota Industries, forms one of the biggest conglome appraises of the world. It withal has the honor of world the merely automobile producer appearing in the top10 BrandZ name recognition ranking. The premier brands have by the go with include Toyota, Lexus and Scion. It has a majority share p ass watering in Daihatsu Motors and has a minor share in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, and the engine, motorcycle and shipboard soldier craft manufacturer Yamaha Motors. The set adopted by the associations watchfulness have been burgeon forthed by its founders and have played a significant role in its success. These values have emphasized the grandness of terms like, play Manufacturing and Just in Time exertion (JIT).Toyota has also developed a unique approach, popularly known as The Toyota Production System (TPS) which forms the basis of its Lean manufacturing. The TPS is a wonderful blend of the values adopted by the company and the practices implemented by its management. The brass is liable for ensuring a proper coordination with the customers as well as the suppliers. Its preliminary business objectives were to get profit from the technologies offering potential to develop the customer make love by personalization and streamlining the internal processes in orde r to interpret a preserve profitability for the business (Liker, J 2004).However, Toyota has incessantly made improvements in its active processes to let its topical growth rate. As a result of this, the company is able to withstand the fierce competition experienced in the automobile sector, for a number of decades.Just In Time (JIT)Just in Time is an impressive combination of a number of techniques that aim to proscribedgrowth the return on investment of a business-activity. This is done by lessen the size of the in-process schedule, and various associated costs, related to it. It has been observed that this technique results in strange improvement in an organizations return on investment, quality, efficiency and effectiveness. In fact, JIT has been considered as an integral component of an organizations philosophy and not that as a production technique. (Ohno 1988)JIT was first developed and mastered inwardly the manufacturing units of Toyota by Taiichi Ohno in ord er to satisfy the requirements of the customers without causing any kinds of delays. later on, Taiichi Ohno came to be known as the father of JIT. Thus, the credit for publicizing the technique is given to Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan. Toyota was successful in overcoming the increasing challenges for its humans through this technique as it foc utilize upon people, plants and systems. (Toyota Highlander Hybrid 2004)The company was actually quick to realize that the successful execution of JIT is possible only when each individual within the company contri yeted towards it. Toyota pioneered this concept to upgrade its current manufacturing process in order to compete with other major players. For a long time, the company was unable to bear the expenses of huge amounts of land uptaked for storing its finished products and spare-parts. Due to this, the economic lot size of the organization was trim back, which take to a very low return on investment for its manufacturing unit s. Thus, a need was felt for making these units more limber and eliminating the overhead costs, which were impact the profitability.With the help of constant research-work, the engineers at Toyota re intentional the manufacturing operations in order to develop a vulgarality of tooling for various production processes. It also made use of flexible robotic systems for performing a majority of these operations. As a result, common subassemblies were designed that could be used in several models, without wasting very much time.The development and implementation of Just In Time technique lead to significant improvements for the company. As the work-in process inventory was sold right off after it was built, a rapid amplify in the liquidity was observed. At the same time, the response-time for the customers demands came down to nigh a day. The rate of customer satisfaction appendd in no time as vehicles were delivered in the lead their expect deadlines. Moreover, the risk of war ehousing the vehicles was completely eliminated as the company adopted the built to order policy for them. (Just in Time- Toyotas Manufacturing proficiency 2008)The very nature of JIT emphasized heavily on the quality aspect, which in turn resulted in the production of high-quality vehicles with stripped complaints. Finally, Toyota redesigned its entire manufacturing process to pull away any kind of tolerances, and implemented efficient statistical controls. Consequently, Toyota trained its suppliers to ensure a quality and timely delivery for the spare-parts.JIT increased the motivation levels of the workers, who aimed to get hold of more challenging goals. It also allowed Toyota to concentrate on group effort, which resulted in talent-identification, sharing knowledge, problem-solving skills, ideas and the achievement of a common goal. All these helped the company to ripe a competitive position for itself.Stock ControlAutomobile manufacturing incurred high cost on storage of fabrics and components. Companies used to store mess of real(a)s and components. It is the Toyota Corporation that invented just-in-time, a system of stock control. Toyota has adopted JIT method of rules of order inventory, for instance it does not keep many assembled cars in its stock. Rather, it manages to assemble the cars in 4 hours after the order is named. There are many plants of the company who deliver parts and components for manufacturing.Wastage of time is minimized through just-in-time stock control. circumstantial production schedules were worked out by manufacturers to find the efficient manufacturing system. Card order of magnitude system Kanban was developed to reduce the space and cost attached with large quantities. In Toyota, components were ordered only after the instruction of Kanban. According to this plan, material that can be used in 1 hour is unplowed in the stock. But production of whole car plant would be stopped if there is any delay of more than I hour. Initially, it was not easy to cope with the new system just-in-time. Very soon, Toyota outperformed and developed effective production system. (autograph, Bolling Pearce 2001)Toyota production system is surprising and highly successful. The production system is valuable and useful due to its integration. Toyota production system focuses on removing devour. Lean manufacturing specialist says just find and eliminate tempestuous (Lean manufacturing, 2001). Searching for the waste and eliminating it leads to continuous improvement. Wastes are of many types such as organizational, psychological and materialistic. baffling design is one of the most terrible and careless mistakes, which occurs due to negligence. fully grown design problem starts at the commencement of manufacturing and have an effect on other functions. Designing not only includes the design of tools and parts but also the design of manufacturing process. It is expensive to fix the poor design. (Lean manufactur ing 2001)If there is a defect in any manufacturing phase, it goes down the line. This defect leads to losses that increase exponentially.Toyota has quality control system, which emphasizes on finding defects. Quality of work in an organization cannot be improved if labor feel shameful on their mistakes and have fear in their mind. (Lean manufacturing 2001) In Toyota, there is an environment of pointing out of fault by the person who has committed it. The organization has an efficient manufacturing environment, in which an employee is encouraged not to commit the mistake again instead of being punishing for that mistake.Employee training is of paramount importance in Toyota Production System. component of employees is listened by the management of company. Consumer demand is center of gravity in inventory management of Toyota production System. Employee feedback is also an meaning(a) part of production system. exacting actions are taken on management mistakes, as they are important and harmful than the mistakes committed by the worker. Management mistakes are taken naughtily and proper attention is given to them. Layout of production floor reduces motion of workers and assemblies.Employees at Toyota have specialization in many tasks, which is helpful when main skills of the workers are not required. In the period of low demand, plans are set to hold the meetings and improvements are made in off time.Inventory is highly reduced in production system. Toyota Production System stresses on consumer demand for material resource planning. Inventory is not pushed from behind rather it is pulled forward through manufacturing chain. Major source of waste is overproduction, which is minimized.The company tries to maintain relationships with few dependable suppliers as many suppliers involve much time and paperwork. Manufacturing process is standardized so that efficiency can be maintained. Design of the manufacturing process is such that it is forward looking as it he lps in reducing the expenses of changeovers. milieual tributeToyota Corporation has always been known for its active participation in the environmental trade protection efforts. It regards the protection of the environment as a key issue for the constant growth of a business organization. In 2000, Toyota framed the Toyota Tsusho root words Environment Policy for guiding the actions of its managers and employees in accordance with the environmental issues. In the same year, the company set up the Earth Environment Committee, to promote its environment-related efforts. In fact, this committee formed the basis for the current league on the Global Environment.Another major effort of the company in this direction came in the form of Toyota Turkey Project. This puke is assigned with the function of economic development and progress based on acceptable principals of the ecological studies, for the coming generations. Since, high-quality products are manufactured in secure and hygien ic working-environment the project ensures that its operations strictly follow the global Toyota environmental policies in product development, design and manufacturing processes. (Environmental Factors 2008)Toyota aims to achieve its environmental protection goals with the help of follo come afterg processes-Manufacturing automobiles with minimum utilization of natural resources, increased usage of renewable resources, low waste production, and causing less environmental impact by the release of insecure substances and high levels of noise.By obeying the rules concerning the legal requirements associated with environmental issues and other environmental protection legislatures to continuously assess its environmental performance.By increasing the awareness well-nigh the environment issues among various sections of the society by training them.By startle open communication with customers and public institutions in regard to environmental management system efforts and environmenta l protection practices.Thus, to constantly upgrade its environmental performance, Toyota sets annual goals and targets with respect to the environmental management system. Due to its responsible behavior and symbolical efforts in this direction, the company has been certified with the ISO 14001 Environment Management System Certificate.Nearly, 5.644 m of the manufacturing area of the company is being lightened by the sunlight, in order to mitigate the electricity consumption. Similarly, the water-pipes constructed of steel are converted into HDPE pipes, to control the wastage of water. Toyota also motivates its business-partners to actively participate in the environmental protection campaigns.With the help of the trainings, members recognition about environmental concerns is increased. For this, the company celebrates the month of June as the Environment Month, every year. In this month, various programs are organized for increasing the level of environmental awareness among all people associated with the company. On similar lines, the company has launched an environmental bulletin- Toyota Green, to complement its efforts in the given direction.In addition to this, the company undertakes detailed inspections before making further investments in business to determine its environment-related impact. It is interesting to line of merchandise that these inspections are based on surveys aimed to protect the environment, before setting up any new manufacturing units. For this, the company demands detailed investigation from its procurement sources to stave off any kinds of problems related to the environment. In addition to this, check sheets are designed for undertaking surveys and properly dispose off the waste materials, released as a result of the manufacturing operations carried out at the given location.ConclusionIt has been seen that the company has a strong presence in the automobile market-segment. The company has a very impressive history and believe s in strong cultural values. It lays a outstanding emphasis on the aspect of quality and efficiency to win the confidence of its customers. Moreover, the company believes in making constant changes in its animated processes to remain competitive. In fact, Toyota has always been known for the adoption of latest technologies and concepts to increase its work-efficiency and productivity from time to time.This attitude of the company is supported by the origin of modern concepts such as JIT, Kanban and Robotics, etc. At the same time, Toyota is always prepared to experiment with the new ideas suggested by its employees, suppliers or customers. Due to this flexible approach, the company has been successful in maintaining its position in a very fierce competitive scenario. At the same time, it has been able to satisfy and conform to the demands and requirements of its customers, in the most profitable manner. Thus, the company would be able to sustain its current growth-rate and profi tability, without facing any difficulty in the near proximo along with its mission to protect the environment from further deterioration. It is also expected that the company would continue to develop efficient and revolutionary work-methods which would be of great utility for the entire industry. However, it has to remain attentive to the constant changes taking place in its external environment and its areas of operation.ReferencesEnvironmental Factors 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from test.toyotsu.co.jp/data/current/pdf-400-datafile.PDFHancock G, Bolling, K Pearce, B 2001, GCSE Graphic Products for OCR.Heinemann.Just in Time- Toyotas Manufacturing proficiency 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from www.japan-101.com/business/just_in_time.htmLean Manufacturing 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from http//systems.almyta.com/articles/Inventory_Management_History_6.aspLiker, J 2004, The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way An Executive heavyset of the Culture Behind TPS, p. 37, Ann Arbor, M ichigan University of Michigan.Ohno, T 1988, Toyota Production System beyond Large-Scale Production, Productivity Press.Toyota Highlander Hybrid 2004, Canadian Driver communications Inc.