Essay on Ford and Toyota quality

Submitted By heathersspam
Words: 348
Pages: 2

1. The Ford Motor Company was born during the Classical period and was originally a text book example of the Classical Scientific School of Management. For instance, Ford created the assembly line where output was maximized by finding new ways to manage human labor and tools. One laborer on the assembly line only installed doors and the next person only installed windshields; assigning responsibilities only to subject matter experts increased the efficiency of human labor. As time, technology and management philosophies progressed, so did the company. Ford incorporated the Quantitative Management school practices by implementing operations research to design cars with computer modeling.

Toyota studied Ford’s policies and adopted the Contingency School of Management philosophy. They realized Ford’s policies would not translate well to Japan. They remained flexible and developed the TPS over many decades. The TPS increased quality and decreased defects; this evolved the company over time into a Quality School of Management.

Ford later adopted the Quality School of Management philosophy but it took many years to catch up to Toyota’s high quality standards. By addressing issues from the industry’s Total Quality Index, Ford’s customer satisfaction increased and now rivals Toyota.

2. Other than performance, reliability, durability, serviceablility, and aesthetics people value the following in their cars:
a. Safety (i.e. crash impact, airbags, braking system)
b. Value
c.