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Toyota is one of the world's leading automakers. For most of its existence, the company has been unassailable, but this past year has presented the company with a number of challenges. These include plant shutdowns caused by parts shortages as a result of the Japanese tsunami, Japanese consumer spending falling again because of the tsunami, competitive challenges and product quality issues that lead to recalls.
As one of the world's leading automakers, Toyota has a lot of different strengths that it uses to compete in the marketplace. The company has great brand equity. Its brand strength is ranked 11th in the world by Interbrand, #1 for automotive companies and #1 for Japanese companies, with a value of $27.764 billion. The company has a great reputation for value, aligning high quality vehicles with relatively low prices. Another strength is Toyota's market share, which is 11% of the worldwide market, ranking it just behind General Motors (Kitamura, Ohnsman & Ito, 2011). This market share is supported by a strong global distribution network. Another strength is the focus on hybrids, where the company is an industry leader. There are some weaknesses, however. The company lost a lot of production capacity with the tsunami, because many of its parts suppliers were in the affected area (Meier, 2011). The company faced a massive recall because of a steering problem, further hurting the firm (Meier, 2011). Conservative management...
The first is the growing hybrid market, in which Toyota has taken the industry lead. The company also has room for growth in overseas markets, many of which are becoming very good car markets for the first time (India, China and other Asian countries in particular). There is also room for opportunity in the development of new products. There are many threats, however. Toyota has seen its profits affected by a rising yen, as it still has significant domestic production (Meier, 2011). The stagnant Japanese economy is also a problem for Toyota, which must find growth elsewhere. The company is obviously threatened by natural disaster, and as always competition is intense and changes in the political environment can have a negative impact as well.
Analysis
In general, Toyota has excelled at leveraging its strengths to take advantage of opportunities. Its production capabilities helped it to outcompete the Big Three in the United States, where the company now has a strong market share. A more recent example is in the company's ability to capture share in the hybrid market. By gaining first mover advantage, Toyota has by far the best brand in hybrids, to the point where there are waiting lists to buy one in some markets (McWilliams, 2011).
The…
Works Cited:
Interbrand (2011). 2011 ranking of the top 100 brands. Interbrand. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-global-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2011.aspx
Kitamura, M., Ohnsman, A. & Ito, A. (2011). Toyota losing market no.1 makes Prius vehicle to escape fading Japan Inc. Bloomberg. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-11/toyota-losing-no-1-makes-prius-priority-to-escape-fading-japan.html
McWilliams, H. (2011). Dealerships desperate to buy in-demand Toyota Prius. Fox News. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-toyota-prius-dealerships-desperate-to-buy-indemand-toyota-prius-20110607,0,3092183.story
Meier, F. (2011). High yen, Thai floods, Japan tsunami swamp Toyota profits. USA Today. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/11/high-yen-thai-floods-japan-tsunami-swamp-toyota-profits/1
Meier, F. (2011). Toyota recalls 420,000 vehicles in U.S., 550,000 worldwide. USA Today. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/11/toyota-recalls-420000-vehicles-in-us-550000-worldwide/1
"Toyota is currently working to achieve this voluntary target by 2009 within the context of its own 2010 Global Vision and zero emissions vehicle goal through, in part, increasing the mix of hybrids within its model line up." In terms of design, it should not be forgotten that Toyota pioneered the world's first mass produced petrol/electric car, the Prius, which went on sale in Japan in 1997. It is also a
Hence, these are "invisible" to the end user, but no less vital to the success of the company for it. Components of this type of competition include production lead time, development speed in research and development, production quality, and the capacity of group companies and parts suppliers (The Manufacturer, 2010). Production quality is one of Toyota's great success benchmarks, as the company's inherent philosophy is that quality is a
This process improvement is implied in the manufacturing and the upper-level management changes, and should be prioritized as such. Another manufacturing process that Toyota needs to address and which is implicit in the previously mentioned manufacturing process is its increasing propensity to utilize parts suppliers outside of its keiretsu, which loosely translates into headless combination (No author, 2009). Keiretsu is a Japanese term for the tiered hierarchy of additional companies
Analysis of Toyota Opportunities and Threats Toyota is the world's leading patent holder in hybrid vehicle technologies, having over 85% of all patents registered in the U.S. Patent Office, in addition to holding over forty different patents in other registries throughout Europe and Asia. This is a formidable platform for growth in this high-growth emerging line of business. Hybrid technologies can reduce carbon emissions by over 60% in the latest engine
However, certain elements of the Toyota Production System must be re-evaluated, particularly the conception of waste. If the principles of CCC21 and Value Innovation were based on the concept that production materials could be halved because they amounted to waste, those initiatives should be discarded. Ideally, Toyota should utilize 100% of the materials that it used prior to CCC21, when all of its quality issues began. The cost-benefit analysis of
Toyota's Strategic Opportunities And Threats Toyota Corporation (NYSE:TM) is a $226B global manufacturer of automotive vehicles including passenger cars, light and heavy-duty trucks and transportation equipment. Automotive sales globally generated $206B in their latest full fiscal year, Financial Services contributed $13.3B, delivering a Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Net Income of $4.3B (Toyota Investor Relations, 2013). The most profitable business unit is Financial Services, which is the financing division of automotive sales