The triumph of lean production

Toyota's lean production

Summary:

            The article is about the difference in manufacturing cars between Toyota and the others. One of the first different is the “andan” which describe a process when the worker pull the cord. According to a worker who worked in a Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, he said that he has to pull the cord 2000 times a week compare to 2 times a week from Ford. This makes Toyota one of the most reliable and desired brand in US. The “andan” is part of Toyota “lean” production system which can help to make cars much more cheaply and higher quality. In the year of 1998, it took Toyota 50% less hour to make a car than Ford and GM. The difference was so great that GM tried to emulate Toyota in order to close the productivity gap. In 2006, it took Toyota 29 hours to make a car while GM was 33 hours which was a big improvement from 1998. One other advantage of this lean production is that it brought the company closer to what consumers need. At that time, it only took it 18 months to develop a new model, while GM took 3 years. The company always maintains a close relationship with its dealers which allowed them to receive response from its customers faster and apply them to its new products. Another big difference is the relationship with part suppliers. Part suppliers are known to provide 85% of a part that make up a car. While Toyota always has a long-term good relationship with its suppliers which locate within North America, GM had much more difficult dealing with its suppliers because of the cost. In the end, most of GM’s suppliers have to shift outside of USA for lower labor cost.

Toyota model changes

Models in 1955: 25

Average model run: 62 months

Models in 2005: 325

Average model run: 25 months

Opinion:

         I think Toyota should keep and maintain its lean production which made the company more successful than other car companies. In today competitive market, it is obvious that the company needs to stand outside of the crowd in order to be success, just only one small mistake and it has to pay a great price. Its producing system has brought them a lot of benefits and success over these years. Its “lean” production not only allows them to make car cheaper and higher quality, it also satisfies what the customers need. The reason is it always has a good relationship with its dealer. This perception give the company opportunity to accommodate and understand what the consumers need, then apply the changes on new products quicker with its manufacturer system.

Question:

1. Do you think Toyota will remain at the top over other car companies?

2. Do you think other company will succeed by emulating Toyota producing system ?

References:

The triump of lean production. 27 February 2007. BBC News. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6346315.stm

Photos retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6346315.stm

First Toyota Test of Small Aircraft

Summary:

First Toyota Test of Small Aircraft, New York Times, June 22, 2002. Toyota has conducted its first successful test flight of a small airplane in May 31. The project had been developing for more than three years and had not decided whether to manufacture. That is a one-hour flight of the four-seat, single-engine plane took place near California's Mojave Airport using an engine supplied by another company. Xavier Dominicis – its spokeman, refused to say the name of the engine maker or say how much money did Toyota spent on. Toyota decided to develop the plane in order to determine whether its experience with vehicle aerodynamics and low-cost production of autos could be applied to small aircraft. At that time, Toyota is known to be among the most cost-efficient manufacturers. During a consultant firm in Fairfax, director of aviation at the Teal Group states that Toyota would do very well bringing their automotive manufacturing techniques to this industry. However, he also afraid the market for single-engine aircraft is tiny. Mr. Dominicis said that the Japan-based company had not decided to manufacture aircraft for the retail market.

Picture of small aircraft flight test from Toyota

Opinion:

In my opinion, I think moving to manufacturing small aircrafts would not give Toyota benefits. The reason is making a small aircrafts does not similar with making cars. While Toyota has many successful stories with cars, but it does not mean that they could produce well small aircrafts. The truth is small aircrafts has a lot of different technologies and the company also has to deal with safety for the passengers. Another big obstacle is as the director of aviation at the Teal Group said above, the market is tiny so even though Toyota is capable of making excellent small aircrafts, there still have high risk that they can have huge beneficial from this project. People still prefer driving a car and it’s still so expensive for end-client afford to buy a small aircraft.

Question:

1. Do you think that moving to manufacture small air planes of Toyota is a good idea ?

2. If Toyota decide to manufacture small air planes in large scale, what are their difficulties ?

References

First Toyota Test of Small Aircraft. June 22, 2002. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/22/business/first-toyota-test-of-small-aircraft.html

Photo, retrieved from http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=2312dc76-4b15-451b-8e85-fe9b23ace6ee

Toyota to end car production in Australia by 2017

Summary:

Toyota to end car production in Australia by 2017, BBC News, February 10, 2014. Toyota company planned to end its cars and engine production in the end of 2017. This is similar with last year Ford and General Motor’s Holden planned to stop producing car in Australia. One of the first reasons the company attributed is due to high manufacturing cost in the market. Toyota president – Akio Toyoda said that they really wanted to continue producing cars in this nation as the workforce here made every effort. However, there are so many negative factors that force them to give out a painful decision such as extreme competitive market together with forecast of reductions in car-making in Australia. It is also believed that about 2500 people will lose their jobs by the time the company quit. The company’s final decision has come although there were appeals from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The other reason that was attributed is the national commission decided to end financial support for car-making company and these companies should cut their costs instead. Last year, the company had a dispute with Australian car plant workers due to some proposed changes in workers’ contracts. The company demanded to change their overtime requirements as well as the removal of allowances for training of first-aid officers and workers who make blood donations. In December last year, they decided to appeal against the Australia’s Federal Court which blocked a vote on their contractual changes. One Toyota spokesman later said that they will not withdraw the appeal as the company believes that the contract has not violated any laws.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appealed to Toyota to stay in the country

Opinion:

            In my opinion, the moving out of Australia of Toyota company in cars production is an inevitable outcome. They failed to negotiate with national commission about subsidy so they do not have any other option. This outcome would make a huge economic recession. First of all, it would have a strong effect on thousands of people. Many of them certainty would experience uncertain future employment. This would make unemployment rate in Australia rise higher. Moreover, it might have negative effect on other aspects. For example, for people who want to buy a new Toyota car, they would have to spend much more money to afford it because they have to pay more tax than usual. Lastly, road support and container shipping would also be affected adversely since there would be less Toyota automobiles in the market in the future.

Toyota is one of the last remaining carmakers in Australia

Question:

1. Do you think that the Australia National Commission stop supporting car-making manufacturer is a right decision ?

2. What could Toyota do in the future to maintain its sale in the Australia market when they no longer produce cars in this nation  ?

References:

Toyota to end car production in Australia by 2017, February 10, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26114894

Photos Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26114894

The Open Secret of Success

Summary:

The Open Secret Of Success, James Surowiecki, The New Yorker, May 12, 2008. For around seventy year, General Motors (G.M.) has sold more cars than any other company in the world. However, Toyota is likely to become the industry’s sale leader this year. This is due to the fact that Toyota has long been the most profitable and innovative firm in the industry. In the first three month, Toyota sold a hundred and sixty thousand more cars than General Motors. Even though the company’s innovation focuses on process rather than on product, and on the factory floor than on the showroom, it does not make them any less powerful. The core of the company’s success is The Toyota Production System which enabled it to build cars faster and with less labor than American companies. This kind of system focuses on how things get made which allow a free and easier flow of parts and products. For example, kanban – a card system that allows workers to signal when new parts are needed or an andon cord, which any worker can pull to stop the assembly line if he notices a problem. Moreover, the way Toyota approaches also distinct with other company even though their system has been widely copied over the years. Its goal is try to make things better on a daily basis, but not to make big and sudden leaps. This is because the company had gone through a series of quality problem in 2006. They found out that incremental innovation cannot be suited with business driver by large technological leaps. That is why Toyota currently is the leader in the industry: they understand the system and they follow the procedure correctly.

Andon cord cycle system

Opinion:

In my opinion, Toyota company is growing their market strongly and globally. One of the factors is that they learned and understood from their failure in the past and adapted themselves to follow their procedure correctly. For that reason, by increasing local production and creating what people need, its sale has surpassed G.M company which was the leading company for more than 70 years. Another thing that make this company stands out of the crowd is that they aim on developing and improving their process. One example is that they invented an andon cord which allowed the workers to stop the assembly and fix any issue if they found during their manufacturer. This helps them to reduce issues that might arise when they delivered their products to the clients. Moreover, the company is able to determine any steps that was wrongful conduct in the past and adapt in the future, making them success even though their business model is being used widely around the world.

Toyota Production System (TPS) is now widely used in other company.

Questions:

1. Do you plan to buy Toyota car as your new car in the future ? If not, which brand are you going to buy ?

2.If you bought a Toyota car before, why did you choose Toyota instead of other brand ?

References:

The Open Secret of Success. 2008, May 12. The New Yorker. Retrieved from

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/05/12/the-open-secret-of-success

Photo 1 retrieved from http://www.lean.org/shook/DisplayObject.cfm?o=1321

Photo 2 retrieved from http://www.hyperwrite.com/Articles/showarticle.aspx?id=90

Toyota: Cars will be safer, but still need drivers

Summary:

Toyota: Cars will be safer, but still need drivers, The Economic Times, September 5, 2014. The article was about Toyota’s plan in having a collision-prevention technology installed to its line-up in US. The motivation of this plan is to help reducing crash as well as car accidents by allow cars to steel themselves sufficiently to stay in the center of the lane. Moreover, their cars will also have a camera to monitor the driver’s eyes and ensure their hands are on the steering wheel all the time. This camera will give a warning immediately if it recognizes the driver’s eyes stare off the road or their hands don’t hold on the wheel. As opposed to other car makers which only install this technology on high and expensive models, Toyota company claims to have that technology installed on both mainstream and luxury line. The article also stated that the company aims to not develop driverless car and its products still need human interaction on situations that can’t be analyzed and handle well by computers. One other supporting reason is because of technology limitations and legal issues. The company plans to put the collision-prevention to all its models in US in 2017. Even though the details of this system will be release soon, they already have this technology as an option when the clients buy the Lexus or six other Toyota models. 

Toyota has said that it prefers to focus on safety and will not be working on driverless vehicles

   Opinion:

In my opinion, I think with this approach Toyota will even increase its car sales further. Obviously, that technology will help decreasing number of car accidents every year as well as improving the ability to handle car driving for senior people. According to an article which is written by Bergeron and Clifford, most of the accident nowadays are from the driver‘s negligence, such as chatting or texting while driving. There was around 78 lives were claimed due to texting while driving (Texting and Driving Car Accidents in Ontario, n.d.). So with the help of the camera, any time the drivers do not focus, it will set out a warning which obligates the drivers to concentrate on the road again. Moreover, senior people are seemed to have difficulty to drive in high way due to their weaken senses and reaction. But soon they will not have to afraid anymore since the availability of this technology. They can drive easier and don’t have to find alternative routes while avoiding high way. One other factor contributes to their approachable and reasonable plan is they don’t aims to make fully autonomous cars but still need human interaction instead and the technology is available on both luxury and mainstream models. It not only be easily and widely accepted by their old clients but also will make the company cars obtainable by people in different classes. According to an article “Urban Jungle a Tough Challenge for Google’s Autonomous Cars”, it states that there was a survey and more than half of people said that 2030 is the earliest year that such a car can handle such situations like understanding someone waiving his hands on the other side or roads with construction zone, while roughly one in 10 said that they would never ever have such a car like that (Gomes) 2014). This means people tend to have their control over car rather than leaving it drives by itself.

Ford's pedestrian detection system steers cars away from collisions

Question:

1. Do you think that Toyota will change their plans in the future ?

2. Do you think that this new technology will be efficient in helping decrease car accidents ?

3. Will Toyota automobiles be more expensive after the installation of the collision - prevention ?

Reference:

Gomes, L. (2014, July 24). Urban Jungle a Tough Challenge for Google’s Autonomous Cars. Technology Review. Retrieved from http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529466/urban-jungle-a-tough-challenge-for-googles-autonomous-cars/.

Texting and Driving Car Accidents in Ontario. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bergeronclifford.com /texting-driving-car-accidents-ontario/.

Toyota: Cars will be safer, but still need drivers. (2014, September 5). The Economic Times. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-09-05/news/53601727_1_toyota-executives-safety-systems-driverless-car

Photo 1 retrieved from http://www.toyotaofnorthcharlotte.com/research/defensive-driving-safety-tips.htm

Photo 2 retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/driveon/2013/10/08/ford-driverless-car-parking/2941361/