Essay on toyota case 26

Submitted By jkwilliams1
Words: 3234
Pages: 13

When it comes to picking a vehicle out many people tend not to be so brand specific as they once were. What I mean by brand specific is if you are a Ford person you tend purchase Fords and if you are a Toyota person, you tend purchase Toyotas. So many different variables go into picking out a vehicle that it is very difficult for auto companies to stay relevant year after year. Whether a person wants a sleek look, horsepower, or whatever else the one thing that all people want is top quality for the lowest cost. In recent years, almost every major automaker has had some type of blemish such as recalls. Over the past decade, Toyota has been in the spotlight when it comes to recalls. In the textbook, Case 26 talks about the troubles Toyota faced in the mist of the accelerator recall, how the problems came about, and how things were handled. I think it is important to get to the root causes of all the accelerator recalls and floor mate recalls but I also want to know how Toyota rebounded. How did Toyota survive? How could Toyota have all those major recalls and still they continue to be ranked as one of the top ranked car companies in the world? What makes them so great?
First I thank it is important to take a glimpse at the history of Toyota. According to Toyota’s official website, Sakichi Toyoda from Japan founded Toyota as Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. in 1933. It was not until 1936 the first AA Sedan was completed and in 1936, The Toyota Motor Co., Ltd was established. In 1950, the company faced a financial crisis and became Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. In 1951, a suggestion system begins and is a big contribution to the company’s 1965 award of the Deming Application Prize for quality control. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. was first established in 1957 as well as the prototype of the Crown. The prefabricated housing business begins in 1975. Throughout the years, Toyota merges and joins forces to become Toyota Motor Manufacturing, USA, Inc. and they take off. Toyota launches the Prius in 1997 as the first mass-produced hybrid car and worldwide sales of hybrids topped 4 million units in 2012. In between all of the years, they developed the Lexus, the Camry and many other quality vehicles. Overall, the history of Toyota has been positive. It is a company that has been around for many years with its share of setbacks, yet it still stands as one of the top vehicles.
1. Problems

A. Macro-
As far as problems the one that led the way to all of the major recalls had to be attributed to the declining rate of vehicle purchased. Another problem that Toyota faced was the constant race to be at the top of the automobile ranking. Toyota saw the economic down fall as a time to not only overtake the competition but also show everyone they are a company to be recon with. I would also say technology had to play a part of the problem because it was a race to produce the bigger and better product.

B. Micro-
In the case of the Toyota company I feel the micro problems far outweighed the macro problems. The leading problem was probably the recalls but there were so many other problems that led up to the recalls. There was poor quality, supply chain issues, and issues with management. The rate at which Toyota responded to the recalls was also a huge problem that led to many fines and lawsuits.

2. Causes With the numbers of sales dropping at an alarming rate it led the Toyota company to do whatever it took to cut costs to help the company stay afloat. The Toyota company even took measures such as cutting its electric bill by turning down the heat in its plants. The economy was by far the biggest root cause to pushing the Toyota company to be as lean as they possible could.

3. Systems affected

A. Structural-includes the formal design, policies, and procedure-
At the time of the recalls Toyota was expanding and was spread out from the U.S. all the way to Japan. The company had one