In the post-war era, the automakers in Japan were encountering the problems of performing their operations in the absence of high duties on import and had to deal with the industry-related barriers so that foreign firms could not penetrate in the market of Japan. With the passage of time, Toyota Motor Corporation gradually moved from the sector of small cars to luxurious vehicles along with SUVs and international expansion plans (Chiarini, 2013).With strategic focus and clarity about long-term vision, Toyota successfully became the market leader and an early innovator of the TQM (Total Quality Management) Model.
This unique framework allowed the company to exploit the quality reputation aspect which was overlooked by the dominant players in the same time frame. Hence, the main idea of this study is to analyze the approach used by Toyota for achieving the breakthrough reputation for quality, identify the need of attaining such image since the inception of Toyota, and assess the path taken by the company for maintaining the leadership position and prospects for enhancing the quality level.Presently, Toyota enjoys a leading reputation in the automobile industry as it offers everyone an excellent range of top quality vehicles.
All of the products are developed with perfection and special attention is given to each and every production step so that waste is completely eliminated and quality is reinforced within every phase (Mazur, Chen, & Prescott, 2008). With the passage of time, the experts of the company refined the concept of TPS within the business operations so that continuous improvement strategy was enhanced and embedded in its culture (Miller, Pawloski, & Standridge, 2010). In order to remain competitive, the corporation is utilizing the latest technology along with appropriate resources.
Japan is among those nations which recognized the importance of focusing on manufacturing high-quality products. It was stated by Marie Kerrin (1998) that in most of the debates of Japanese experts, the primary emphasis was on the impact that the Japanese organizational structures and manufacturing projects had on the job designs and relationship creations (Chiarini, 2013). During the 1970s, Japanese management practices comprised of cross-functional work teams, Quality Circles, TQM, Just-in-time production, inventory management, and self-motivating workforce; all of these theories were the result of revolutions in the business operations and management.
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