Toyota Quality Control - Case Study Example

Assignment Title: An analysis of Toyota quality control Name: Class: Unit: Introduction Toyota has one of the best process controls in the motor vehicle industry. The company has well developed strategies and comprehensive production process aimed at managing cost efficiency, enhance quality, and ensure high class operational environment. The company uses Just-in-Time (JIT) and Total Quality Management (TQM) practices with an aim of enhancing its productivity, meet customers demand and ensure total quality (Spear & Bowen, 1999). All operations are expected to transform the inputs to the outputs. This is attained through various ways and the Four V’s is one of them. The four V’s implies Volume, Variety, Variation and Visibility. Quality is paramount in motor vehicle industry and lack of it can lead to fatalities and costly recall processes. To understand how Toyota maintains quality, it is important to look at its 4V. Volume There is high level of reputability in Toyota production. This is production of large number of vehicles using enhance technology and the entire factory is systematized. Variety The use of routines through robots and other advanced technology has made low variety. This is due to repetition and routine of operation system. Variation Toyota seems to have low level in variation. This is due to fact that they reduce costs and enhance quality in a continuous manner. Visibility The level of visibility is expected to be low due to standardized transformational processes. Quality issues in the automobile industry are very important. Toyota has been implementing the Lean manufacturing processes with an aim of enhancing quality. This is through use of Six Sigma, Jidoka and DMAIC with an aim of eliminating waste (Liker & Franz, 2011). Despite this, the main problems that Toyota faces are collection waste. This is waste associated with poor quality in materials from the suppliers, repair works, and scraping the defective products. The costs incurred with correction to improve quality are high. This makes it important to look at quality control at Toyota and how it can be enhanced more to reduce high costs incurred and avoid product recalls. This report will analyze quality control at Toyota. The main areas of focus will be Toyota quality process flow and how to improve it. It will also analyze Just-In-Time, Total quality Management, and lean manufacturing. The report will provide analysis on the stated issues and provide appropriate recommendations. Methodology This report will use a detailed flow chart which is vital in examining the processes. This type of chart is used since it gives more details to see where the problems are occurring. It will also help to see what happens in each of the steps and also graphically display the processes so one can see the redundancies and wasted efforts. The report will also theory on Just-In-Time, Total quality Management, and the quality control check. It will include application of operation management literature on quality management. This includes theory on total quality management and process control. It will also look at the application of cycle time analysis and the performance matrix. Analysis Lean analysis and TQM Total quality management is a variant of lean manufacturing which arose from Toyota Production System (TPS). Both TQM and lean manufacturing have a lot in common in creating synergy and enhancing competitiveness. To maintain quality, Toyota has been using cost effective approach with an aim of making valuable products for the consumers. The company has been implementing strategies aimed at managing high quality through a comprehensive quality process (Amasaka, 2002). It also involves ensuring an optimum production through an optimum inventory. In 2014, Toyota made recalls for 6.4 million vehicles due to quality related problems. This is despite the company having one of the most respected quality systems in place. Toyota quality control process is based on the customer oriented process of TPS. This has been a set of principles used for years to enhance quality and meet customer needs. TPS is based on three main expected outcomes. Provision of high quality vehicles at affordable costs and in a timely manner. To provide members with job satisfaction, security and fairness. Enable company flexibility to respond to market needs, attain profit and sustainability. TPS have been based on total elimination of waste, unevenness and enable efficiency in operations. This is based on standardization to ensure safety in operation and consistent approach to quality. Members are required to have a continuous improvement in their quality standards, enhance efficiency and reduce waste. This is referred to as Kaizen and has been applied to all aspects of the company’s activities (Amasaka, 2008). Quality control involves evaluating the output in relation to set standard and come up with corrective action where the output fails to meet the expected standards. There have been issues with Toyota quality management despite their approach which has been praised by many. Quality control is a continuous process aimed at meeting the customer needs. The main aim is to make sure that all processes are in line with the customer needs. For Toyota, the use of TPS has been instrumental in quality control. Quality control based on TPS is based on Kaizen, JIT and Jidoka (Liker & Franz, 2011). Despite the quality management process at Toyota being highly detailed, there have major recalls over the past few years. This has put a blemish on Toyota records as quality auto maker. The company has been accused of misleading customers on quality issues such as problems with the floor mats and gas pedals. Operations are responsible for production of goods and services. The processes are expected to be managed to meet the customer demand (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007). This is due to fact having excess capacity is wasteful and costly while having low capacity leads to dissatisfied customers and loss in revenues. To be effective, the organization is expected to have the ability to deal with variation. Through scientific management, it was possible to have changes in way factories were managed. This is a movement where the main emphasis was on maximum output. The advancement in technology has been a major influence in operations management. Toyota uses process technology in production of their units. There is high use of information technology in their quality process. This includes the use of electronic data processing, e-commerce and more. The company has been one of the main volunteers in the adoption of operations strategy. The main area where operations management is used at Toyota includes the revenue management, process analysis and improvement, agility and lean systems (Amasaka, 2008). Toyota is seen as a major user of total quality management. This is due to being a pioneer of TQM quality control check and the only firm that adheres to TQM directly. Throughout its 75 years history, Toyota has stuck with TQM aiding in its evolution. The firm has received a lot of prestigious awards related to TQM (Amasaka, 2008). TQM is based on customer first or Kaizen where there is continuous improvement and total participation. The firm was able to introduce the Statistical Quality Control (SQC) in 1949. From the current recall scandals, it seems Toyota has strayed from the core of TQM. The company production model has been under a lot of criticism. The firm has been carrying out mass inspections instead of focusing on the quality of individual product. Moreover, Toyota has mainly focused on price and failed to look at how to enhance quality. The zero defect slogans have not been effective. The firm has lost war on quality by focusing on how to grow their businesses rather than focusing on coming up with quality cars. The company has been setting goals to become the largest vehicle manufacturer which they have been able to achieve. This has been done at the expense of quality. Faced with low manpower, Toyota was forced to contract new engineers with an aim of boosting the engineering capacity. This has been the main cause of quality glitches that have been evidenced. With the rise in demand, Toyota has not been able to properly evaluate and improve parts made out of japan (Cole, 2011). There has been less collaboration with the overseas suppliers. Toyota has utilized lean production with an aim of improving on their productivity and quality. Through use of lean processes, Toyota has been able to improve on their productivity and profitability. The Six-Sigma was developed by Motorola in 1986. This is a process which aims at enhancing quality of process outputs through elimination of defects. It also involved reduction of variability in the manufacturing process (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007). Based on Toyota, the process uses statistical methods and comes up with a special infrastructure for the people in the organization. The fact that Toyota has suffered a lot of quality issues over the past years has raised questions on their application of six-sigma in their processes (Amasaka, 2008). This is through use of Six-sigma philosophy and methods such as DMAIC and visual management tools to ensure a continuous improvement in their processes (Biazzo, 2002). Toyota is among the firms that have adopted Six-Sigma with an aim of reducing their variability in assembly process. Despite the use of Six-Sigma, there are issues with their quality especially in cases where they have been deliberately ignored in the production lines. Just-In-Time This is a process which is regulated by the natural laws of supply and demand. It is through the customer demands that it becomes possible to stipulate the demand for production. JIT have played a major role in quality since being pioneered by Toyota (Spear & Bowen, 1999). The customer has been placed as the ultimate arbiter. Despite the noble use of JIT technology, the high demand for Toyota vehicles have led to a reduction in quality. The customers’ orders are in some cases too high and the pull force overwhelms the production. The customer demands and production have always been linked through use of takt time analysis. This is a device which is capable of determining the sales pace in reaction on the production line ability. When there is a reduction in takt time, Toyota is forced to allocate more resources (Amasaka, 2002). The company does not respond to high demand through increase in individual workload. It has been common for Toyota to allocate more members to a production line to address high demand. Despite this, the recent recalls show that the company has been in several instances overwhelmed by demand. Fig. 1, JIT A major challenge for JIT is variation. Variation is inherent in all business processes. This can be caused by different types of variability. It can be caused by the deliberate choices made by the management (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007). For Toyota, the commitment to quality leads to assignable variations. This is where the variations are caused by the defective inputs, poor work ethics and methods. This variation can be addressed through analysis and correction. For Toyota, lack of fast corrective actions has led to quality issues. The recalls have been disruptive to normal operations at Toyota. The poor quality has been a major cause of customer dissatisfaction and damage to the company reputation. This makes it very important for Toyota to deal with variability. The metrics that are crucial in dealing with variability are mean and standard deviation. Through standard deviation it is possible to quantify variation using the mean. A close analysis on Toyota recent recalls shows a failure in dealing with variation leading to recalls over quality. Assuring quality is part of the maintenance operations (Cole, 2011). This is with emphasis being put on safety and dealing with the customers’ feedback. Conclusions To sum up, Toyota quality issues are not caused by the faulty production system but a poor quality management system based on abandoning lean manufacturing and JIT. The company management has been very slow in responding to quality management issues. To ensure continuity in quality, there is need for clear incentives and promotion of best quality practices. The leaders and management have to remain vigilant and support the quality management system. There is need to use process mapping and improve on the quality management. Recommendations Toyota is equipped with the top class practices which can help in enhancing quality and improving their supply chain management. Despite this, there are several improvements in quality management which can help in improving their performance. The firm can use process to further enhance process capacity (Alshehri, 2016). They can upscale the process capacity using advanced transformation to enhance their assembly line, supply chain and production. This includes improving the quality standards and ensuring that their products are started using less turnaround time (Cole, 2011). Toyota can drive their predictive metrics with an aim of managing the production and output. They can also enhance their predictive metrics to help in managing customer demand in the entire year (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007). This will also include the ability to manage their inventory levels well. The firm should consider use of predictive metrics through big data technology and a comprehensive market analysis. it is recommendable for Toyota to put up their quality standards. This is through driving improvements by raising quality standards to ensure there is minimum waste. This is by ensuring that the products are able to reach facility at the right time and the firm is able to manage the brand. This includes using effective quality control parameters and carrying out adequate manual checks to drive a high quality output. While hiring engineers from outside japan, there is need to ensure they are well qualified and conversant with Toyota TQM. The influx of new engineers who in most cases are not Japanese leads to communication problems. There are also issues with less qualified engineers being assigned overseas to overlook workers. These are issues which have to be addressed through use of qualified engineers who are well versed with Japanese language and working culture (Alshehri, 2016). Only senior engineers should be allocated to overseas supervision. With rapid expansion, Toyota has to ensure that quality standards are maintained. The expansion has been associated with efforts to reduce costs which in some cases hurt the quality (Alshehri, 2016). The firm has to ensure that they do not compromise their quality at all costs. This is due to fact that Toyota has survived through use of quality to build its image. The recalls have been a major impediment to attaining the business goals hence the need to be avoided at all costs (Cole, 2011). The aggressive growth targets have to be done in a manner that does not hurt quality. This is due to fact that aggressive growth leads to abandonment of their quality principles. Growth has been taking priority of the company traditional quality focus. Growth has to be pursued in a cautious manner to ensure that it does not occur at the expense of quality. This will ensure that they are able to retain their reputation, reliability and durability. It is important to ensure that the firm does not adopt risky growth strategies where quality is less emphasized. Top leadership has to ensure that they do not underestimate the importance of their mandate as the firm continues growing in ensuring quality (Cole, 2011). References Alshehri, O. 2016, ‘Toyota Process Flow Analysis’, Global Journal of Management And Business Research, vol.16, no.5. Amasaka, K. 2002, ‘“New JIT”: A new management technology principle at Toyota’, International Journal of Production Economics, vol.80, no.2, pp.135-144. Amasaka, K. 2008, ‘Science TQM, a new quality management principle: The quality management strategy of Toyota’, Journal of Management & Engineering Integration, vol.1, no.1, p. 7. Biazzo, S. 2002, ‘Process mapping techniques and organisational analysis: Lessons from sociotechnical system theory’, Business Process Management Journal, vol.8, no.1, pp.42-52. Cole, R. E. 2011, ‘What really happened to Toyota?’ MIT Sloan Management Review, vol.52, no.4, p.29. Liker, J. K., & Franz, J. K. 2011, The Toyota way to continuous improvement: Linking strategy and operational excellence to achieve superior performance, McGraw Hill Professional. Spear, S., & Bowen, H. K. 1999, Decoding the DNA of the Toyota production system, Harvard business review, no.77, pp.96-108. Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M. 2007, Operations management (Vol. 8), Boston: McGraw- Hill/Irwin. Read More