Student No: 0117602
BU 229
QUESTION 1
USING THE SPECIFIC OPERATIONS PERFORMANCE
OBJECTIVES EXPLAIN WHY DO YOU THING TMC IS A
WORLD-CLASS COMPANY?
company should be concerned to satisfy its customers’ requirements for fast and
dependable services at reasonable price, as well as helping its own suppliers to
improve services they offer. There are five basic performance objectives and they
apply to all types of operation:
 Quality
 Speed
 Dependability
 Flexibility
 Cost (Slack, N. et al, 2001).
These operations performance objectives are analysed here in accordance to TMC.
A
1)
Doing things right by providing error free goods and services, which will
satisfy the customers, is known as ‘quality’.
According to the case study, Toyota’s vehicles consistently rank near the
top in third-party customer-satisfaction surveys. Being voted by many
market research and surveys as the car of the year for several years it shows
that, Toyota has a successful record worldwide. Because of the good
quality Toyota’s success kept going, where in 1995, Toyota was the best car
in the Middle East. Also, TMC has produce a good quality cars that are quit
and do not emit unpleasant fumes, such as more than 40 emission-control
systems and dozens of technologies that have improved passenger-car
safety (Ahmed, A., 2003, Coursework).
2)
An other performance objective is speed, which means by doing things fast,
to minimise the time between the order and the availability of the product or
service that gives the customer e speed advantage.
The TMC’s techniques are focussed operations that reduce complexity by
using simple and small machines, which are robust and flexible. By
rearranging layout and flow to enhance simplicity improves speed of
production. On the coursework, statistics show that in the late 1980s, the
output per worker was as much as two or three times higher than US or
European plants.
3)
Third performance objective is dependability that means doing things in
time for customers to receive their gods or services when they are promised.
TMC includes ‘Just-in-time’ (JIT) production system with multi skilled
worker that work as a team, and with 'kanban control' has allowed them to
deliver products as promised. Improving efficiency and quality is a concern
not only of managers and technical experts but also of all employees. So,
by doing this, TMC gives a dependability advantage to its customers.
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Student No: 0117602
BU 229
4)
A clear result of responding to a dynamic environment is that organisation
change their products and services and changes the way they do business.
This performance objective is known as ‘flexibility’.
(Peters, T., 1998) argues that we must learn to love change and develop
flexible and responsive organizations to cope with the dynamic business
environment.
In the TMC plant it means the ability to adopt its manufacturing resources
so that it can launch new models. The coursework analyses that, Toyota
was able to achieve high level of flexibility, producing relatively small
batches of different models with little or no loss of productivity or quality.
TMC during the years has provided a range of options that customers are
able to choose.
5)
One major operations objective, especially where companies compete with
prices is ‘cost’. Low price is a universal attractive objective to customers,
which can be achieved by producing goods at lower costs. In order to ‘do
things cheaply’, TMC seek to influence the cost of goods and services, so
for the future TMC has planed to shift their production of multipurpose
vehicles and pick-up trucks on different countries around the world (e.g.
Argentina, South Africa). Also, internally, cost performance is helped by
good performance in the other performance objectives that TMC has
managed to produce high quality vehicles at a reasonable prices.
B
y using and improving quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost
operations performance, TMC has seen a global growth and high percentage of
customer satisfaction. Because of the success of these operation performance
objectives Japanese style (Toyotaism) of manufacturing and product developments
has come to be studied and emulated around the world (Coursework). TMC is world
leader in supply chain management, and to keep its production at the high quality,
maximum speed, on time delivery, flexibility and at the lowest cost TMC works with
its suppliers to make sure that they are also the best suppliers in the industry. Shifting
its operation in different countries searching for cheap inputs (row material and
labour) makes it easier to produce products at a lower cost and good quality.
Operating continentally also gives dependability advantage to its customers by
making it easy to deliver its production in the market place. Using these operation
performance objectives TMC has managed to keep its customers happy and compete
successfully with others companies in global market. Analysing these characteristics
it is safe to conclude that TMC is a world-class company.
End of question 1
2
Student No: 0117602
BU 229
ASSESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TMC OPERATIONS
STRATEGY?
1. Strategy is a number of decisions and actions that an organization uses to
achieve its long-term goals. A strategy has its content and process (Slack, N.
et al, 2001). Specific decisions which are taken to achieve specific objectives
is known as content strategy and the procedure which is used within a business
to formulate its business is known as process strategy. Companies around the
world use different contents and processes. Company’s objectives and
successes are depends on choosing the right operation strategy. This
assignment assesses the TMC strategy by describing its production system. It
analyses TMC’s success and critics by different authors and ends with a
positive view.
2. According to the case study Toyota was one of the few car manufactures in the
world that was consistently profitable following the oil crisis by 1974. This
made competing manufactures to visit Toyota to discover the key to that
company’s success in a bad market. What they discovered was ‘Japanese
teamworking’ that uses scientific management principles (Huczynski, A.,
Buchanan, D., 2001).
3. Japanese teamworking is not the same as the teamworking that came to
prominence in most Europe and American companies during 1960s and 1970s
(MacDuffie, J.E., 1998, pp. 12).
Toyotaism is another name used for ‘Japanese teamworking’ that refers to a
particular form of work organisation that stresses ‘lean production’. Lean
production is an approach that combines ‘just-in-time’ (JIT) production, work
standardisation, continues incremental process improvement, problem solving
teams and powerful first-line supervision (Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D.,
2001).
JIT (just-in-time) production system tries to meet demand instantaneously
with prefect quality and no waste. It differs from traditional operations
practices as it stresses waste elimination and fast throughput, both of which
contribute to low inventories. Planning and control of many JIT techniques
are directly concern with pull scheduling, kanban control, levelled scheduling,
mixed-model scheduling and synchronization of flow (Slack, N., et al, 2001).
4. Toyota has played a big role in transforming Japan into one of the capitals of
the automotive world. Also, Western companies that have adopted Toyota’s
production system have improved productivity and efficiency and a good
example, which is mention on the coursework, is the joint venture (NUMMI).
The 2000 IndustryWeek Census of manufactures (Coursework) shows that
world-class plants have widely adopted just-in-time/continues-flow production
and all methods that Toyota began developing 60 years ego. Moreover,
analysis of IndustryWeek’s Best Plants winners from 1991 to 2000 shows that
the vast majority use lean-manufacturing practices extensively.
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Student No: 0117602
BU 229
5. In spite of its world-wide success, many critics have seen TMC methods
pessimistically.
Parker and Slaughter (1988) who studied a plant run jointly by Toyota and
General Motors in California – New United Motors Manufacturing
Intercorparated (NUMMI) were critical of Japanese teamworking, describing
it as part of an overall management package which they labelled ‘management
by stress’. In their view, what appears to be participation is in fact a new form
of exploitation.
(Hill, S., 1991) In the event, while circles (TMC’s production system)
promoted minor operational improvements, they did little to change human
relations and company culture. Circles had elaborate and inflexible formal
procedures which were time consuming and cumbersome.
Even in Japan the approach of JIT is not without its critics. Kamata wrote an
autobiography description of life as an employee at a Toyota plant called
Japan in the Passing Lane. His account speaks of ‘the inhumanity and the
unquestioning adherence’ of working under such a system (Slack, N. et al,
2001, pp. 489).
6. Despite these critics, the TMC’s operation strategy has become a world-wide
phenomenon and there are reliable reports from the number of firms of
considerable cost saving and efficiency gains (Bradley, K. & Hill, 1994).
TMC uses the ‘bottom-up’ operations strategy, which is a process that
emerges from day-to-day operational experience. Philosophers of this strategy
continue to make the case that TMC’s production system is a method of best
practice and can be successfully implemented in different industries in any
country. They argue that the ability to deliver just-in-time not only saves
working capital (through reducing inventory levels) but also has a significant
impact on the ability of an operation to improve its intrinsic efficiency.
According to coursework Toyota has remained competitive, as it continues to
improve its production system in spite of the rise in the value of the yen and
economic recessions. JIT production system that TMC uses, not only has
maximise profit and growth, but also Toyota’s vehicles rank near the top of
third-party customer satisfaction surveys. JIT production system has allowed
TMC to have high reputation of being highly efficient and producing high
quality cars and tracks.
End.
Word Count: 1,489
Bibliography and References
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Peters, T. (1998). Thriving on Chaos
MacDuffie, J.E., (1998). The Japanese auto transplants: challenges to
conventional wisdom’ pp. 12 –18
Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D., (2001). Organizational Behaviour
Parker, M., Slaughter, J., (1988). Choosing Sides: Union and the Team
Concept
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Womack, J.P., et al (1990). The Machine that Change the World: The Triumph
of Lean Production
Hill, S., (1991). Why quality circles failed but total quality management might
succeed: British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol.29, no.4, pp.541-68
Bradley, K., Hill, S., (1983) After Japan: the quality circle transplant and
productivity efficiency, British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol.21, pp.291311
Bradley, K. & Hill, (1994). In Clark, H., et al, (1994). Organisation and
Identities
Clark, H., et al ‘Organisation and Identities’, 1994
Slack, N., et al, (2001). Operations Management
Hill, T., (1993). Manufacturing Strategy’
Lindberg, P., et al, (1998). International Manufacturing Strategies
Durand, J. P., et al, (1999). Teamwork in the Automobile Industry: Radical
Change or Passing Fashion
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