Toyota Develops Pleasant-Sounding and Secure Workplaces for Its Employees - Case Study Example

Quality in the Work Environment Quality Management Systems Introduction All types of organization have an established system of quality management. It is the way that management of organization is carried on in order to improve the operational performance as well as the quality of the products or services offered by it. It helps firms to provide quality products and service constantly. The aim of this case study is to provide an overview about the influences of the quality work environment on the efficiency improvement of the employees of the organization. The attitudes of the employees toward the organization will be greatly influenced by the quality management system in the organization. (Pilgard, et al. 2008, 149-55). “Quality management systems standards take into consideration eight quality management principles, namely, customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making, and mutually beneficial supplier relationships, which are relevant and applicable to all organizations providing service.” (Quality Management Systems-Requirements for Service Quality by Public Service Organizations, 2). The integration of quality management initiatives such as TQM and ergonomics in the organization will provide positive results on the efficiency of the entire organization. TQM is based on the quality improvement relating to the entire organizational functions. (Taveira, 281-291). Quality improvement policy and their management implications: The organization selected for this discussion is Toyota Motor Company. Toyota is one of the smooth running companies in the global automobile industry .This company introduced so many quality improvement policies in its operation system as well as work environment. The policies are intended to provide a formal continuous process by which the participating providers utilize objective measures to monitor and evaluate the quality of services. Toyota introduced a project named as TMMT (Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey) project in its manufacturing plant in Turkey. This project promotes so many quality assurance schemes in the organization. Those are described below. 1. Quality target: This project was planned with the objective of production and marketing of vehicles with standardized quality level similar to Japan production plants. The members of the TMMT project were vigilantly selected for ensuring the standardized quality level and proper training was provided to them for this purpose. The production plant and equipments were also carefully designed and established supportive for achieving the targeted objectives of the project. It focused on providing better work environments to the employees. The production process as per the TMMT project was started in 1994. The company achieved its quality targets within the stipulated time period. The accomplishment of quality targets by TMMT project helped the company to get the leadership position in the automobile industry in Turkey. Presently TMMT is a major global production bases of the company on which 95 % of the production are targeted tot the European markets. This indicates that quality work environment could improve the quality of the product. 2. Toyota production system (TPS): It is also referred as lean production system. Through this system the company objected to improve the quality and productivity in the manufacturing operations. Toyota production system consists of certain principles .They are built on quality purpose, standardization and kaizen (continuous improvement). a) Built-in quality concept: This principle is the cornerstone of TPS. “According to these principles for each process/operator next step is a customer. So everybody is responsible to send the product with zero defects.” (Quality Policy: Toyota Quality Assurance System). In this concept every member does their work very sincerely with the target of zero defects for the final product. In the production system, the problems of one member should not affect the following process carried out by another member. Each of the members in the project can stop the production line in problematic situations. Mechanical systems implemented as a part of the project is capable of recognizing and preventing the defective products in the manufacturing process. Thus it ensured that at each of the production level, appropriate quality is occupied by the product and only zero defects products are passed on to the following process. b) Standardization: To provide built-in quality to the manufacturing process and finally to the products every operation in the manufacturing plant is carefully planned and checked after trials. In built-in quality concept every method is intended and corrected after trials to provide built-in quality to the final product. After the selection of the best operation method, it is approved for each vehicle as standard. Standardization of each level of the production process is capable of providing same quality level product coming out of the factory for marketing. The determination of variables for analysis also makes easy through this production system. c) Kaizen (Continuous Improvement): It is the basic concept in Toyota manufacturing process. Standard work in Toyota plant is considered as a dynamic concept. In the plant the production process is carried on in the order of Plan-Do-Check-Action. Standard work is not fixed at any quality level and it is continuously improved with higher quality standard process. Planning is the first step in Kaizen. The following steps are trailing, correcting and adopting the correct action. The responses from the following process, inspection and customers are taken into consideration for continuous improvement in the production process. The potential problems in the manufacturing operation are also eliminated through the improvement activities. All members take part to kaizen activities through Creative suggestion system and Kaizen circles. “Quality of working area effects work and product quality. Therefore 5S (seiri-classification, seiton-arrangement, seiketsu-tidiness, seiso-cleaning, shitsuke-discipline) is very important in TPS.” (Toyota Quality Assurance System: Toyota Production System). All employees in the production system take part in the arrangement of the working area of the plant. Tools and equipments are arranged properly focusing on preventing the wrong usage. Cleanliness in the working area is very important for influencing and motivating the employees for rendering maximum efficiency and quality operations through proper working of tools and equipments and zero defects on product. Through implementation of discipline in the manufacturing environment, loyalty of employees towards the standard operation is ensured. In the Kaizen concept, neatness is an essential parameter for proper work. 3. Supplier quality assurance system: Toyota considers suppliers as an important part of the total production process. It is due to the fact that quality of the raw materials and parts has direct influence on the quality of the vehicle. Thus Toyota ensures the involvement of suppliers on the continuous improvement activities. The quality target fixed by the system is applicable in case of component parts from suppliers also. Before selecting the suppliers, their quality level in terms of technical capacity and cost effective supply capabilities are evaluated. Long term co-operation and mutual trust are ensured by Toyota with its supplier groups. This helped them to get quality parts and materials in line with the established quality target of the company. The selection of suppliers is subjected to the provisions of Supplier Quality Assurance Manual. The minimum standard quality of the parts and materials from the suppliers is pointed out in this manual. Supplier is liable under this agreement to send good quality parts only. 4. Customer satisfaction: In the European automobile market, economic situations and preferences of customers are differentiating in nature. Members of the TMMT project are actively participating in the designing and preparation of new models. In the kaizen system, customers’ responses published in international surveys such as JD power are continuously monitored and considered for the designing of new models. Through these activities, Toyota ensured maximum customer satisfaction as well as leadership position in the industry. (Quality Policy: Toyota Quality Assurance System). TQM in Toyota Motor Company: The TQM process in the Toyota manufacturing plant is started with maintenance of quality standards through statistical testing of selected random samples. Just-in-time inventory system is an integral part of the Toyota production system. It helps to reduce the cost of inventory and at the same time improves the efficiency and ingenuity of the system. Toyota production system maintains the ability to stop the manufacturing process at any time. Through the controlled way of the operating process, the defects on products can be identified in time. (Total Quality Management and Toyota). Quality auditing processes and evaluation of their effectiveness: Quality auditing process can be defined as a combination of evaluation, confirmation and verification activities. A quality audit becomes positive and constructive if it is conducted properly. It prevents the activities, by identification, which is able to create serious problems in future. Quality auditing is an internationally accepted standard for evaluating the quality. This method of evaluation helps the organization to reach a result whether the quality activities and related results are acquired through the planned strategies. It should be conducted covering the whole environment of the organization working as a tool for determining the effectiveness of the quality system implemented by the organization. The need of auditing processes occurs where the quality system is found to be unsatisfactory and the auditee takes no intention of interest for correction. (Mills, xv). Audit should be executed in an appreciable manner that discussing the scope and objectives among the committee, include the conformance and non-conformance in the report, present audit observation to the senior management to make sure that the results of the audit are reported clear, the team leader can prepare a quality audit report and a copy of that report is called quality record, which is used for discussing the non-conformance, and finally perform a correction of all non-conformance to make the quality auditing a success. (Goh). Quality auditing plays a major role in the success of any business. The auditing process is effective only if each member of the group has the knowledge about the basic of the company and the crisis they are going to look into. They must have a structural process conducting the evaluation. In order to bring effectiveness in auditing it is necessary to have very strong leadership and a well equipped group. The auditing committee should be dynamic enough to make effective results; it means a committee in which the members interact with each other, with the management regularly. It is well if the auditing effectiveness is reviewed usually. However, very few companies, like TOYOTA, use this method, or making the changes according to the reports obtained by the auditing committee. (View Point: Audit Committee Effectiveness). It is necessary for an auditing committee to evaluate the effectiveness of their process frequently. In the course they should assess if the auditor has taken the actions according to the audit plans. Auditing committee should get hold of the feedback from the important people including finance director and the leader of the internal audit. It is the responsibility of an auditing committee to see the quality improvement plans developed by them are executed.(Smith).The main objectives behind the quality of TOYOTA are the lean principles, continuous improvement and respect for people. Continuous improvement includes the removal of unwanted things and the improvement of the whole business rather than individual priority. Respect towards the individuals must be given more importance than improvement policies. Individuals include not only the employees but also the customers, stakeholders, investors, etc. Another important term is ACE (achieving competitive excellence) which is the operating system of TOYOTA. Toyota Motor Company is comprised of various co-related functions and is managed by ACE. It is company’s total commitment to provide the best service in the market. ACE, in TOYOTA, nurture the organization to give hearts and minds for the total improvement. Emphasis is given equally on quality and speed. It helps the management to study about the problems. It provides some visual approaches to the improvement of processes. (Schmidt). Application of quality management systems in the workplace: The Toyota Motor Company is one of the best running automobile companies in the world. The vital factor in their success is the consideration they take towards the work environment similar to the manufacturing process and products. They provide freedom for each member of the staff to be an independent goal seeker and give confidence to apply their own problem solving skills to serve the consumers more capably. The workers are given time to solve the problem and are provided with the chances of innovative thoughts. Most of the companies still think that quality auditing and quality assurance can only be applied to the products, and not to the human aspects. But, for the success in business field, this has to be applied with immediate effects. Toyota motor company gives initial priority to safety and health. It becomes the responsibility of each of the employees and executives to create a safe and healthy workplace. The intention behind this is to stay away from accidents and occupational diseases when indulging in different activities which require the total participation of employees. The company ensures machinery and equipment safety in a high degree which actually starts from the design of those equipments onwards. They conduct trainings and different activities to make the employees conscious about their safety, because it is acknowledged that safety is the basic element of all operations. Toyota Motor Company tries to apply safety to the workplaces in different ways: Aiming to be the best among the companies which provide safety and consideration for health, developing the work places more capable of avoiding accidents, an important point to be noted is that they have developed the workplaces something very comfortable where employees work with ease. The human resource principle of the organization is to establish a mutual trusting and respectful relationship by indulging themselves in corporate activities. (Toyota: Health and Safety). High-skilled and high involvement workplaces are more effective among the employees. If employees are provided high quality workplaces then they seem to be working hard even though the work is said to be more complicated. The work becomes enjoying if the characteristics of the procedure is interesting. And the employees must be ensured about the rewards and feed backs of their work. TOYOTA has been providing innovative work practices to the employees, successfully leading them to produce more efficient works and enabling them to redesign the jobs which help them to coordinate their efforts. Employees are not discriminated based on their gender in Toyota; each one of them is treated equally. The main quality of Toyota which makes them success in catching the respect of different countries is that Toyota gives more attention to the rules and regulations of the country where they are active. ( Toyota and Us). Conclusion: Toyota takes more care for continuous improvement in the workplaces of the employees. The personal development of employees is assured by the company. Toyota extends a pleasant-sounding and secure workplace to its employees. So the employees are required to produce their best for the overall growth of the organization. Toyota has its own system of accomplishment and the workers there fulfil their duties with integrity. The quality work environment in Toyota has greater influence on the efficiency improvement of the organizational personnel and it leads to the operational performance improvement of the entire organization. Works Cited Goh, Choon Kwee., et al. The Effectiveness of Internal Quality Audits on ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems in the Construction Sector. 14 Mar. 2009. . Mills, Charles A. The Quality Audit: A management Evaluation Tool. McGraw Hill Professional. 1989. 14 Mar. 2009. . Pilgard, G., et al. Work Environment Factors Affecting Quality Work in Swedish Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Swedish Dental Journal. 2008. 32.3. 14 Mar. 2009. . Quality Management Systems-Requirements for Service Quality by Public Service Organizations. Bureau of Indian Standards. 2005. 14 Mar. 2009. . Quality Policy: Toyota Quality Assurance System. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey. 2004. 14 Mar. 2009. . Schmidt, Matthew. The Lean Challenge. Central Connecticut State University. 2007. 14 Mar. 2009. . Smith, Robert. Audit Committees Combined Code Guidance. A Report and Proposed Guidance by an FRC Appointed Group Chaired. 2003. 14 Mar. 2009. . Taveira, Alvaro D. Quality Management and the Work Environment: An Empirical Investigation in a Public Sector Organization. Applied Ergonomics. 34.4. 2003. Science Direct. 14 Mar. 2009. . Total Quality Management and Toyota. Oboulo.com. 2006. 14 Mar. 2009. . Toyota Quality Assurance System: Toyota Production System. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey. 2004.14 Mar. 2009. . Toyota and Us. 14 Mar. 2009. Read More