Case Study Toyota
Toyota case study
Task 1 a) Brief overview of the critical importance of strategic operations management to a world class company. AND b) Critical review of Toyota’s strategic operations management activities from manufacturing, product/service and administration perspectives.
a) Strategic operations management is of great importance to any organisation. The very existence of organisations in the modern competitive world depends on mass customization, Lean production, agile manufacturing, customer-centric provision (Strategic Operations Management, Second edition, Steve Brown, Richard Lamming, John Bessant and Peter Jones), and so on – depend on the ability of the organization to actually do these things. Here strategic decisions play a crucial role. In my opinion Strategic operations management is a holistic approach, covering the whole organisation, touching different aspects of business. Further strategic operations management can be vitally important in achieving business goals, and gaining competitive advantage. At this point, I find it is worth to define the terminology – ‘Strategic Operations management’. According to Slack and Lewis, operations strategy holds the following definition: “Operations strategy is the total pattern of decisions which shape the long-term capabilities of any type of operations and their contribution to the overall strategy, through the reconciliation of market requirements with operations resources”( Slack et al 2007, p69). Generally strategic operations management activities are critical to the customer satisfaction & innovation. There are four types of advantages for strategic operations management in a given business (Slack et al 2007, p22);
1. Strategic operations management can reduce the cost of producing products and services, and increase the efficiency. When we analyse the case of Toyota Corporation, it is evident that cost is one of the critical competitive factors for the corporation, thereby strategic
Task 1 a) Brief overview of the critical importance of strategic operations management to a world class company. AND b) Critical review of Toyota’s strategic operations management activities from manufacturing, product/service and administration perspectives.
a) Strategic operations management is of great importance to any organisation. The very existence of organisations in the modern competitive world depends on mass customization, Lean production, agile manufacturing, customer-centric provision (Strategic Operations Management, Second edition, Steve Brown, Richard Lamming, John Bessant and Peter Jones), and so on – depend on the ability of the organization to actually do these things. Here strategic decisions play a crucial role. In my opinion Strategic operations management is a holistic approach, covering the whole organisation, touching different aspects of business. Further strategic operations management can be vitally important in achieving business goals, and gaining competitive advantage. At this point, I find it is worth to define the terminology – ‘Strategic Operations management’. According to Slack and Lewis, operations strategy holds the following definition: “Operations strategy is the total pattern of decisions which shape the long-term capabilities of any type of operations and their contribution to the overall strategy, through the reconciliation of market requirements with operations resources”( Slack et al 2007, p69). Generally strategic operations management activities are critical to the customer satisfaction & innovation. There are four types of advantages for strategic operations management in a given business (Slack et al 2007, p22);
1. Strategic operations management can reduce the cost of producing products and services, and increase the efficiency. When we analyse the case of Toyota Corporation, it is evident that cost is one of the critical competitive factors for the corporation, thereby strategic
Bibliography: Hitokoto, T. (2010, May 13). Big carmakers back on the road. Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan). Retrieved September , 2012, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=14&sid=1d339a39-33fa-4450-aa6f4440ea5ed390%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6 3667972997 (Ebscohost library) Investopedia.com (2012). The industry handbook: Automobiles. Investopedia. Retrieved August, 2011, from http://www.investopedia.com/features/industryhandbook/automobile.asp Krause, D.R., Handfield, R.B., Tyler, B.B. (2007). The relationships between supplier development, commitment, social capital accumulation and performance improvement. Journal of Operations Management 25 (2), 528–545 Liker, J. K. (2004). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from The World’s Greatest Manufacturer Sanna, L. (2005). “Driving the Solution: the Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle”. EPRI Journal, p.8-17. Teresko, J. (2007). “Toyota’s Real Secret: Hint, It’s Not TPS.” Retrieved April 20, 2011 from http://www.industryweek.com/articles/toyotas_real_secret_hint_its_not_tps_13432.aspx? Page=4 Toyota (2009). Toyota’s annual report. (2009) Retrieved March 17, 2012 from http://www.toyota-global.com/investors/ir_library/annual/pdf/2009/pdf/p10_16.pdf) Hill, Charles W. L., and Gareth R. Jones. "Toyota in 2009." "IndustryWeek : Toyota 's Real Secret: Hint, It 's Not TPS." IndustryWeek - ConnectingManufacturing 's Leaders . Penton Media, 21st September 2012, online version. The Manufacturer.com - Promoting best practice in Manufacturing. http://www.themanufacturer.com /us/detail.html?contents_id=4010Treece, James B"The Roots of Toyota 's Strength." AUTOMOTIVE NEWS . Crain Communications, 18Aug. 2006. Web. 21st September 2012. .Vaghefi, M. Reza . "Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage: The Toyota Philosohpy and its Effects." Operations management, an integrated Goods and Services Approach, Evans, Collier 2007 Principles of operations management, eighth edition, Jay Heizer, Barry Render 2011 http://www.student.tue.nl/R/k.smeekens/Evidence/SE070307/files/5marketing.pdf http://www.toyota-global.com/showroom/vehicle_gallery/ http://www.toyota-global.com/showroom/ http://cws.cengage.co.uk/barnes/students/sample_ch/ch2.pdf http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199288304/henry_ch05.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota Boyer, K.K., and Lewis, M. (2002) Competitive Priorities: Investigating The Need For Trade-Offs In Operations Strategy. Production & Operations Management [online].11(1) pp. 9-20 [Accessed 23 September 2012]. Available at:http://ebscohost.com . Dilworth, J. (2000) Operations management. 3rd ed. Orlando: Harcourt FreshMinds (2008) FreshFilm [online]. [Accessed 23 November 2012]. Available at: . . http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/zh_cn/Images/Nissan%20Case%20Study%202008_0 4_tcm78-61882.pdf ( Accessed 23rd September 2012)