Preview

“Henry Ford at Highland Park and Toyota During the 1980s and 1990s Demonstrate That a Growing Car Market Is the Necessary Precondition for Achieving Superior Productivity”. Describe the Methods Used to Improve

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1793 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
“Henry Ford at Highland Park and Toyota During the 1980s and 1990s Demonstrate That a Growing Car Market Is the Necessary Precondition for Achieving Superior Productivity”. Describe the Methods Used to Improve
“Henry Ford at Highland Park and Toyota during the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate that a growing car market is the necessary precondition for achieving superior productivity”. Describe the methods used to improve productivity and critically discuss whether a growing market is a necessary precondition.
Productivity is “A measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs.” (BusinessDictionary.com) It is a way for companies to maintain their quality and quantity of products and services in a cost effective manner. Especially if several companies are at the same level, able to access the same factors of inputs and goods, incur similar costs of production then price becomes the key to success during such competition. Such a growing market generally provides an opportunity and necessity to companies for achieving greater productivity. This essay will aim to evaluate a growing product market as a necessary precondition for achieving “super productivity” while taking the automobile industry as a growing industry, especially during the 1980s and 1990s, and using Ford’s and Toyota’s productive methods as examples.
In a growing industry, most companies would like to achieve superior productivity. Superior productivity is often associated with the advances a company’s production system will achieve through technological and managerial changes. In order to evaluate the necessity of growing product market as a precondition for superior productivity, one must understand the growing stage of the Product Life Cycle. The Product Life Cycle (PLC) has four stages; introductory, growth, mature and decline stage. The growing stage is like the transition period from the first to the second stage. Since companies experience the highest level of competition in a growing product market, they try to expand their market share and indulge in different marketing, pricing and advancing methods to be the leaders of the market. Thus,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Greg Aziz Role Model

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gregory James Aziz is a force to reckon with in the freight Car manufacturing industry, as he has proved his competence through the success of National Steel Car. This is the leading manufacturer of railroad freight cars across America that Gregory J Aziz, an accomplished leader, heads as its CEO, and President. With quality education in economics, from the University of Western Ontario, Greg Aziz is armed with skills and knowledge, on how to hold the numerous responsibilities that come with these positions. As a result, he has propelled the National Steel Car in realizing its growth and operations to it’s over 2000 members, making it a leader in technological advancement and quality…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    MKT 650

    • 4716 Words
    • 19 Pages

    As the text book says, “The product life cycle is concerned with the sales history of a product class which holds that a product’s sales change over time in a predictable way and that products go through a series of five distinct stages: introduction, growth, shakeout, maturity, and decline”(Mullins & Walker, 2010, p271). Each of these stages has opportunities and threats for the firm, and they can affect the strategy of the company. Thereby, the product life cycle is an important way for managers to make decisions in the future.…

    • 4716 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ford significantly enhanced productivity and decreased production time by segmenting the assembly process into smaller, more focused activities and arranging them in a continuous flow. With the help of this creative strategy, Ford was able to create cars like the Model T in record quantities, lowering the cost of ownership and increasing accessibility for the general population in…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Henry Ford used the assembly line and incorporated his own ideas to revolutionize the auto industry and make cars a reality for the average American. “That efficiency of mass production enabled him to reduce the cost of the Model T Touring car from $950 in 1908 to just $290 in 1925 while increasing production during that time from just more than 10,000 to nearly 2 million cars per year”. (1) This obviously changed America as the average person was able to afford an automobile, but also began a dangerous standard in the auto industry of cost cutting and finding the cheapest way possible to manufacture their products. Finding the cheapest or most inexpensive way to produce their products has not only caused the auto industry, but…

    • 1946 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A critical factor in the motor manufacturing industry was the vast number of vehicles which were manufactured and sold, with the Ford Motor Company being the catalyst for this. Henry Ford Established the Ford Motor Company in the early 20th century and quickly started selling his famous Model-T motor car. Alongside Frederick Taylor, Ford perfected the assembly line and made mass production a reality. A Model-T could be produced in 90 minutes and as a result the price for one dropped from $825 to $575 in four years. Fundamentally, this meant that anyone could afford a car, including the working class, with a few months’ wages. This supported the economic system and kept it rising well into the late 20’s. Another supporting factor was that other US companies were able to copy Fords production technique and therefore increasing the revenue of the companies. This shows the massive economic growth caused by the development of mass production.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Henry Ford Accomplishments

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For example, “oil and steel were two well-established industries that received a serious boost by the demand for automobiles” (Age of the Automobile). Many industries like the oil and steel were increasing production for more automobiles being produced. During this automobile era, “manufacturing became a highly mechanized process in which mass manufacturing was performed by unskilled workers and the assembly line cut down on human handling, and machines were designed to handle multiple tasks”(Bianco). In other words, quick development was a very important skill that unskilled workers had to master; however, this was made easy because a lot of the times machines did most of the work and the workers would have to put a little effort to make sure everything was right. This enabled Ford “to increase production from about 475 cars in a nine-hour day to more than 1,200 auto assemblies in an eight-hour day” (Bianco). Due to more manufacturing of cars and more products of steel, rubber, and glass being created, Ford increased the production of the assembly lines. Having raw materials such as rubber and steel available in the market, “more people would buy raw materials and products, which stimulated public spending throughout.” This gave Ford a chance to another company called “The Ford Manufacturing Company, which was started to produce engines, running gears and other car…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    business reorganization, and not merely from shedding workers. In the best case, productivity-driven gains in foreign market…

    • 7220 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Case Study Toyota

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1. I find that the Toyota Prius is in the Maturity stage of the product life cycle due to the massive competition arising from other manufactures such as Ford, GM and Honda. Due to this, Toyota is only receiving modest profit from the sales of the vehicle (Perreault, Cannon, McCarthy, 2006, p.666). The Prius quickly went through the stage of introduction and growth since it’s introduction in the US market in 2000 (p. 666). Because of this, the Prius is beginning to move into the final stage of decline since they have to now compete by introducing newer and better models of the Prius (p. 666).…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The automotive industry is a tremendous contributor to the comprehensive level of economic growth experienced throughout the twentieth century. With the peak of industrialization finally realized, there existed opportunity for development and modernization of societies around the world. With this in mind, opportunity was present for the production of automobiles for use around the world as well. This substantial demand created the economic opportunity for companies such as General Motors to begin building their empires. As one of the first companies to become a strong contributor in the industry, General Motors quickly placed itself…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ford

    • 1035 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The purpose of this paper will be to explain how the supply and demand as well as the elasticity of demand exists for the automobiles produced by the Ford Motor Company. The early history of the company through the present will be highlighted in an effort to show how the firm became a global leaders in the production of automobiles.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plc and Marketing Mix

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Product Life Cycle can reduce time to market, improve product quality, reduce pro-totyping costs, identify potential sales opportunities and revenue contributions, and re-duce environmental impacts at end-of-life. To create successful new products the com-pany must understand its customers, markets and competitors.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nowadays, General Motors is well known as a big company in the whole world. Since the foundation of the company the managers that work there need to make an effort to make profit and build the image of the company. General Motors is an automobile industry located in United States and makes influence in the economy of the country. The company sells different models of cars and has a lot of consumers that really like its models. In order to construct research about this company, some questions are interesting. This paper considers how General Motors was founded and how the company developed its production system by responding to the following questions:…

    • 1294 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Businesses must keep their product offerings relevant and profitable to stay in operation. The Boston Consulting Group developed a tool, called the BCG matrix, for categorizing a firm’s products in relation to the overall product life cycle. Product life cycle is based on the observation that products develop, similar to animals, through distinct phases of maturity that differ in amount of resources required and produced. The BCG matrix places each product a company offers according to the growth rate of the business and the relative market share the product controls. Identifying which quadrant of the BCG matrix a product offering falls into provides valuable guidance to management about the future of that product…

    • 1379 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Having survived the financial crisis of 2008/2009 as a robust competitive member of the world's leading car manufacturers, Ford is now trying to sustain its strong financial performance. To what extent this is dependent on the state of the world's automobile industry and what structural features of the global industry are driving competition and profitability will be analyzed in this paper, as well as the question on how the industry will evolve in the future and what the implications of these trends will be.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both of the sales and profit are the most crucial factors in the operating of a business. High sales and profits help the business to keep operating so that is the reason why businesses are continually seeking methods to increase the sales volume and profits. Sales volume depends on a variety of factors such as the product pricing, the feature of the product, advertising intensity etc. Profits lie on the sales volume, product pricing, cost of sales, internal expenses etc. Product pricing is the most pivotal element which impacts both sales and profits in significant measure. Cheaper pricing makes the more competitive power of the product, helps more sales but needs lower costs as well; this stimulates more gross profit of the business. Basically reducing labour costs or cutting cost of goods manufactured is the simplest method to achieve this goal. However these sorts of methods would influence the quality of products then lead low quantity of sales. The best idea to gain high sales and profits is promoting the productive flow. An effective productive flow can maintain high quality of the product and decrease the costs on producing at the same time. In the following context of this article, I will use the example of Toyota Production System (TPS) to illustrate how the improvements in productive flow and product quality give rise to the enhancement of sales and profit.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays