TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT CASE STUDEY

Quality management in all organization management system

The commitment from business executives is one of the key TQM implementation principles that make an organization successful. In fact, the organization commitment present in the senior organizational staff range from top to lower administration. These occur through self-driven motives, motivation and employee empowerment. Total Quality Management becomes achievable at Toyota through setting up the mission and vision statements, objectives, and organizational goals. In addition, the TQM is achievable via the course of active participation in the organizational follow up actions. These actions denote the entire activities needed and involved during the implementation of the set-out ideologies of the organization. From Toyota Corporations report, TQM has been successful through the commitment of executive management and organizational workforce (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2012).

Through inventory and half the bottlenecks at half cost and time, the adopters of TMS (Toyota Management System) are authorized to manufacture twice above the normal production. To manage the quality in all organizational management system, the Toyota Production System incorporates different modernisms like strategy or kanri Hoshin use, overall value supervision, and just-in-time assembly. The amalgamation of these innovations enables Toyota to have a strong competitive advantage despite the fact that Toyota never originated from all of them. The 1914 Henry Ford invention relied on just-in-time production model. The Ford system of production on a grand perspective warrants massive production, thus quality (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2012). Kanji and Asher (1996) claim that to manage the minute set of production necessitated by the splintered and small post-war marketplaces, the JIT system focuses on the motion and elimination of waste materials. This reduces crave for work-in-process inventory through wrapping up the long production lines. Toyota Corp wraps the production lines into slashed change-over times, multi-trained workforce that run manifold machines, and new-fangled cells into U shape. When supplementing the just-in-cells, the system of kanban is employed by the Toyota Corporation to connect the cells that are unable to integrate physically. Equally, the system helps Toyota in integrating with the other external companies, consumers, and suppliers. The TQM and the creativity of Toyota proprietors both support the quality at the source. The rectification and discovery of the production problems require the executives to be committed. At the forefront of Toyota operations, the managers integrate a number of forms of operational quality checks to ensure quality management at all levels. The uninterrupted tests help the Toyota workforce engaging in the assembly course to scrutinize the value of apparatus, implements, and resources utilized in fabrication. The checks help in the scrutiny of the previously performed tasks by other workers. However, the corporation own test enables the workers to revise their personal advance in the assembly course.

The Toyota process owners set up the mistake-proofing (Poka-yoke) procedures and devices to capture the awareness of management and involuntarily correct and surface the augmenting problems. This is essential for the critical production circumstances and steps that prove impractical and tricky for the Toyota employees to inspect. Nevertheless, the policy deployment system decentralizes the process of decision making at Toyota. This context of implementing Total Quality Management originates from Hoshin kanris management by objective (MBO). The aspect becomes more advantageous to Toyota when dealing with quality management. The system initially puts into practice the coordinated approach and provides a clear structure for the suppliers, producers, and consumers through inter-organizational cost administration. Moreover, the Toyota executives are capable of solving the concurrent delivery, cost, and quality bottlenecks, thus replace and increase the relatively slow accounting management mechanisms.

Customer focus that leads to the desired customer satisfaction at Toyota Company is one of the major success factors in TQM implementation. For every business to grow, it should have understanding, reliable, and trustworthy customers. The principle of customer satisfaction and focus has been the most presently well-thought-out aspect in Toyota manufacturing quality. The TQM may characteristically involve total business focus towards meeting and exceeding customers expectations and requirements through considering their personal interests. The mission of improving and achieving customer satisfaction ought to stream from customer focus. Thus, when focusing on the manufacturing quality, this aspect enhances TQM implementation. The first priorities at Toyota are the community satisfaction, employees, owners, consumers, and mission. The diverse consumer-related features from liberty. The concern to care is eminent in Toyota Corporation during manufacturing. Toyota has three basic perspectives of TQM that are customer-oriented. These are based on its manufacturing process traced back to the 1950s.

The strategies towards achieving quality manufacturing, planning, and having the culture towards quality accomplishment are paramount for TQM implementation to remain successful. To enhance and maintain quality through strategic planning schemes, all the managers and employers must remain effectively driven. This involves training workers on principles concerning quality culture and achievement. The scheduling and planning are analytical applications at Toyota Company that purposes in assessing customer demand, material availability, and plant capacity during manufacturing. The Toyota Corporation has considerable approaches that rank it among the successful and renowned implementers of TQM. From the inherent and designed structure of Toyota, it becomes feasible to comprehend why quality manufacturing is gradually becoming effective. The inspection department is responsible for taking corrective measures, salvaging, and sorting in the desired manufactured product or service quality. The Toyota Corporation also has a quality control system that is involved in determining quality policies, review statistics, and establish quality manual or presentation data. Furthermore, quality assurance is one of the integral principles in quality implementation that is practically present at Toyota. The quality assurer and quality inspectors all through the Toyota Company structure also manage research and development concerning quality of manufactured products and services.

The Toyota production and operations management system is similarly dubbed as the managerial system. In fact, in this corporation, operational management is also referred to as the production process, production management or operations (Chary, 2009). These simply incorporate the actual production and delivery of products. The managerial system involves product design and the associated product process, planning and implementing production, as well as acquiring and organizing resources. With this broad scope, the production and operation managers have a fundamental role to play in the companys ability to reach the TQM implementation goals and objectives. The Toyota Corporation operations managers are required to be conversant and familiar with the TQM implementation concepts and issues that surround this functional area. Toyotas operation management system is focused on fulfilling the requirements of the customers.

The corporation realizes this via offering loyal and express commodities at logical fees and assisting dealers in progressing commodities proffered. As Slack et al. (2009) observed, the basic performance objectives, which pertain to all the Toyotas operations include quality, speed, flexibility, dependability, and cost. Toyota Company has been successful in meeting these objectives through its production and operation functions. Over several decades, Toyotas operational processes and management systems were streamlined resulting in the popularly known Toyota Production System. Although the system had been extensively researched on, many companies, such as Nissan experienced difficulties in replicating TPS. The TPS was conceived when the company realized that producing massive quantities from limited product lines and ensuring large components to achieve maximum economies of scale led to flaws. Its major objectives were to reduce cost, eliminate waste, and respond to the changing needs of the customers. The initial feature of this system was set-up time reduction and this forms the basis of TQM implementation. At Toyota Corporation, quality is considered as acting responsibly through the provision of blunder-gratis products that please the target clientele. Toyota vehicles are among the leading brands in customer satisfaction. Due to good quality, its success has kept growing and in 2012, the company was the best worldwide. Moreover, Toyota has been keen on producing quality vehicles via the utilization of various technologies that improve the performance of the vehicles. While implementing TQM, Toyota perceives speed as a key element. In this case, speed objective means doing things fast in order to reduce the time spent between ordering and availing the product to the customer.

The TPS method during processing concentrates on reducing intricacy via the use of minute and uncomplicated machinery that is elastic and full-bodied. The company human resources and managers are fond of reorganizing streams and design to promote minimalism. This enhances the speed of production. Another objective during TQM implementation is dependability. This means timely working to ensure that customers get their products within the promised time. Toyota has included just-in-time production system comprised of multi-skilled employees who work as teams. The kanban control allows the workers to deliver goods and services as promised. Advancing value and effectiveness appears to be the distress for administrators, mechanical specialists and other Toyota human resources. During TQM implementation, Toyota responds to the demands by changing the products and the way of doing business. Chary (2009) argues that while implementing TQM, organizations must learn to like change and develop responsive and flexible organizations to deal with the changing business environment. Within Toyota plants, this incorporates the ability to adopt the manufacturing resources to develop new models. The company is able to attain elevated degree of suppleness, manufacturing fairly tiny bunches of products devoid of losses in excellence or output. The organizational hierarchy and job descriptions also determine the successful implementation of the TQM. Toyota is amongst the few companies whose organizational structure and task allocation have proved viable in TQM implementation. The company has three levels of management. See diagram below. Despite the hierarchy and task specification, employees are able to make independent decisions and take corrective measures when necessary to ensure quality during production. Team working is highly encouraged at Toyota Corporation and this plays a significant role during TQM implementation. All stakeholders are incorporated in quality control initiatives to ensure client demands are satisfied. However, all employees are required to carry out their assigned tasks and the management closely supervises the ways of interactions between workers. The management ensures that the manufacturing lines are well built and all employees are motivated to learn on how to improve the production processes.

Toyota is among the few manufactures in the completely automobile industry that consistently profited during the oil crisis in 1974. The discovery was the unique team working of the Japanese that utilizes the scientific management rules (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007). The joint effort in Japan, usually dubbed as Toyotaism, is a kind of job association emphasizing on lean-assembly. The technique merges just-in-time production, dilemma answering groups, job equivalence, authoritative foremost-streak administration, and continued procedure perfection. Just-in-time (JIT) assembly scheme attempts to accomplish all clients needs instantly devoid of misuse but with ideal excellence. JIT appears to be dissimilar from the conventional functional performances in that it emphasizes on speedy production and ravage purging that adds to stumpy supply. Control and planning of many JIT approaches are concerned directly with pull scheduling, leveled scheduling, kanban control, synchronization of flow, and mixed-model scheduling (Slack et al., 2009). Toyota appears to be amongst the principal participants in changing Japan to a kingpin in car production. Companies, which have adopted the companys production system, have increased efficiency and productivity. The 2009 industrial survey of manufacturers indicates that many world-class firms have adopted continuous-flow or just-in-time production and many techniques Toyota has been developing many years ago. In addition, the manufacturing examination of top plant victors illustrates that the mainstream of them utilize lean production techniques widely. Thus, team-working TPS assists Toyota Corporation in the implementation of TQM.

The Executives and Quality Managers face some challenges while implementing Quality Management Systems in organizations. In fact, with lack of the implementation resources such as monetary and human resources in any organization, the implementation of TQM cannot be successful. Towards the implementation of programs and projects in organizations, the financial and human resources have become the pillar stones. The approach of TQM impels the marketplace competence from all kinds organizational proceeds to ensure profitability and productivity. To meet the desired results in TQM implementation, an organization ought to consider the availability of human and financial resources that are very important for the provision of appropriate milieu for accomplishing organizational objectives. In the case of Toyota that originated and perfected the philosophy of TQM, the Executives and Quality Managers meet some intertwined problems during TQM implementation. The flaw in the new product development is increasingly becoming complicated for the managers to break and accelerate, thus reliability problem. Besides, secretive culture and dysfunctional organizational structure cause barrier in communication between the top management thus, in turn, augmenting public outrage. The top executives may fail to provide and scale-up adequate training to the suppliers and new workforces. As a result, cracks are created in the rigorous TPS system. In addition, lack of leadership at the top management might cause challenges in the implementation of TQM. Therefore, in designing the organizational structures and systems that impact quality, the senior executives and managers must be responsible as elaborated in the figure 2 below.

QUESTION 1 (20 MARKS)

With reference to the case, examine any 4 quality costs that Toyota Motor Corporation incurred in its TQM implementation journey.

QUESTION 2 (20 MARKS)

With reference to the case, evaluate the contribution of the 4 stage poka-yoke system as a strategy for reducing quality failure at Toyota Motor Corporation