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 prototypes the company has produced, and can also contribute to a 45% reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for fleet care providers (Toyota Investor elations, 2012). This has led to Toyota winning several awards for innovation and thought leadership in the areas of hybrid technology. In addition, Toyota has invested in a rapid prototyping production process that allows them to create, test and manufacture hybrid-engine-based vehicles in 35% less time that the traditional production cycles of internal combustion engines….

Toyota Strategic Management
Case (TOYOTA)

Strategic Management: Strategy Implementation

Strategic Implementation

Do you think that the implementation of Toyota's current strategies identified in its 2011 Annual eport and on its web page will help to overcome the public relations difficulties resulting from the recall issues reported by the media in 2010?

The current strategies as identified by Toyota in its annual reports and on its website will not be enough in the short-term to reverse the loss of trust in the company and its brand. There are many factors that contributed to the exceptionally high amount of recalls in 2010 that continued into February, 2011 with one of the most significant being the exceptional level of political infighting and lack of focus on customers' needs instead of pursuing aggressive growth (Shirouzu, 2010). This has continued to be exacerbated by Toyota management concentrating more on cost reduction over customer satisfaction (Marksberry, 2011) and the reliance on….

Toyota Strategic Management
For decades, Toyota has been one of the most admired companies in the world. They were able to turn their image in the 1960's and 70's from cheap Japanese import to the car of choice for millions of consumers worldwide. Toyota's strategy has varied significantly over the years. The company began by primarily imitating many of its competitor's designs and even used some of its components. Much of the early strategy of Toyota was focused on becoming the low cost leader in the market niches they worked to carve out. However, in the late eighties the company added a luxury fleet to its product lineup under the brand name Lexus. Toyota has always been tremendously market driven; the company has constantly redefined themselves in terms of a changing market. This has been the company's primary strength over the years.

Toyota's Strategy and Current Strategic Fit

Today, Toyota is one of….

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 (including suppliers) that traditional Japanese countries work with (Greto et al., 2010, p. 9). Due to Toyota's pressing concerns for globalization and its forsaking of localization concerns, Toyota's American development largely functioned independently of traditional keiretsu suppliers. The noxious effects of this occurrence is not only witnessed in the plethora of recalls Toyota endured in the first decade of the 21st century, but they also resulted in the fact that the organization struggled to find enough senior engineers responsible for….

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc.
Major Issues in the Case

Toyota Motor Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc. (TMM) has bypassed their typical response to quality issues known as "jidoka" in a special circumstance regarding seat installation. As opposed to stopping the assembly line and focusing on the underlying root of the problem, in the case of the faulty seats the cars were allowed to continue through the production line with a special marking that indicated that there was a seat defect. When the cars finished the assembly line phase they were then parked in a separate area in which the seats could be repaired or replaced. Allowing the cars to complete the assembly line saved a lot of time and expense because the team did not have to stop operations. However, at the same time it made finding the root cause of the quality issues complicated because it required more investigation and clouds the….

Toyota - a Visionary Company:
Since its inception, Toyota Company has continued to use its guiding principles to develop reliable vehicles and sustainable development of the society through the use of innovative and high-quality products and services. One of the major goals of the firm is to develop products that exceed the expectations of customers with regards to quality and safety. Moreover, Toyota is currently working towards the achievement of zero traffic-related injuries and fatalities, which is the eventual objective of the mobility society. However, the company has faced numerous legal troubles in the recent years, especially in 2010, that were mainly characterized by probable class-action lawsuits filed across the country. In attempts to avoid such legal troubles, Toyota has established its global vision that outlines the kind of firm it seeks to be and the values to cherish. Therefore, the main concern is whether the Toyota Company is currently moving….

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 this return to basics approach of Toyota manufacturing is critical. One the one hand, Toyota will probably ensure a significant raise in cost by utilizing the percentage of materials and time that it took to produce automobiles that it once did. Yet the benefits will certainly outweigh those costs. After Toyota succeeded in dethroning General Motors as the top automobile manufacturer in 2008, it posted several negatives in its profit margins during March of 2009 (in areas such as operating….

Toyota has a few strengths on which to build competitive advantage and exploit opportunities in the marketplace. The company has two strong brands in Toyota and Lexus that are internationally recognized, allowing Toyota significant leverage when entering new markets or even negotiating with suppliers. Another strength that Toyota has is a strong global distribution network. Takahashi (2010) notes that even as Japan and the U.S. saw weakness in 2010, the company's gains in China and India were sufficient that it delivered a surprise profit.
There are a number of weaknesses, however, that Toyota has. Its historically strong production processes had a poor year in 2010, and the cost associated with product recalls in that year was ¥170 billion - ¥180 billion. Another weakness that the company has is with its supply chain. Again, the supply chain has historically been considered one of the company's strengths, but it is concentrated in a….

Toyota Prius
In the case study, Toyota Prius customers sought to achieve different kinds of goals, which the Prius was able to meet, hence helping its customers achieve these specific goals. Prius customers have a mix of immediate and long-term purchase goals, in addition to personal-material and professional goals (Hawkins and Motherbaugh, 2010, p. 448).

Prius satisfies its customers' long-term, which is to have a fuel efficient car, a concern that is primarily economic and secondarily environmental in consideration. Efficiency was the key to Prius' success in the automobile market: it is the most efficient car model that it eclipsed the performance of its major competitors, Honda and Ford. In addition to long-term goals of having an environmentally-friendly, fuel efficient car, the Prius also responds to customers' immediate professional goals to own a car that is environmentally-friendly and fuel efficient, yet technology-savvy enough to demonstrate that the purchase is a "smart" choice….

12. It has not been implemented in a wide enough spectrum to really gain the attention of parents on a national level.

13. Marketing towards one single brand image sometimes limits a company's capability to market its diversified product line.

14. Targeting previous customers through follow up ay waster valuable resources.

T

h r e a t s

1. Utilize the global Toyota presence to keep financial budgets and cash flows under control. 2. If one market collapses, it might threaten others, thus Toyota must balance all its market locations equally.

3. Upcoming competition with other major names threatens Toyota's dominance in sustainable technologies. The company needs to continue investing in new innovative technologies to maintain dominance.

4. Domestic brands smearing Toyota with the idea that buying foreign takes away from American jobs, the company should continue to open plants in different nations as to provide jobs in the countries which they sell in.

5. Cutting prices too….

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 elations, 2013). The most profitable business unit is Financial Services, which is the financing division of automotive sales globally (Toyota Investor elations, 2013). As of January, 2013 Toyota had their best month ever of hybrid vehicle sales, attaining a 45% increase, delivering 21,000 units globally (Toyota Investor elations, 2013). Prius sales alone were up 36% over the previous month in January, 2013 as well (Toyota Investor elations, 2013). Toyota has several promising potential opportunities for growth that are described in the next section.

Analysis of Toyota's Opportunities Today and in the Future

One of the most innate strengths Toyota has….

When speaking about long-term plans, that is, plans which have an applicability of about 5 years, Toyota Motor Company tries to consider new opportunities such as to expand the international division, to diversify its product line, to constantly improve their technology and to become a friendly environmental company. Moreover, when designing these long-term projects the company focuses also on the competitors and try to keep itself on top of them or, at least, to keep the level as high as today.

Toyota Motor Company constantly seeks to find new available markets, where it could enter and sell its products or where it could build a factory (this way reducing transportation costs and import taxes). "Toyota (NYSE:TM) established operations in North America in 1957 and will operate 15 manufacturing plants in North America by 2010" Moreover, the company is constantly entering new markets such as Australia and Eastern Europe.

When it comes to….

Toyota Meets Stakeholders Objectives
Toyota Corporation is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world and it is headquartered in Japan. Founded in 1937, this company services clients all over the world. Despite its position as a leader in automobile production, Toyota was mired in a controversy that revolved around safety issues. When the severity of these issues increased, Toyota began the recall of its vehicles since late September 2010 and this has tarnished the reputation of the company in a big way. Its sales has also dropped because people are unsure of its safety (Associated Press, 2010). This controversy coupled with the global meltdown forced the company to ask for a 200 billion yen loan from the Bank of Japan (Willacy, 2009). All this had a huge impact on the confidence of stakeholders in the company and so, Toyota is taking additional steps to meet their expectations. Toyota's stakeholders….

Global Crisis Management A Case StudyToyota Motor Corporation is a company that was established in 1937 with the goal of developing quality automobiles. Toyotas growth and success in the global automotive sector is attributable to various factors including a suitable business concept and model. Toyotas global reputation as a manufacturer of affordable quality automobiles is linked to its use of continuous improvement and just in time (JIT) concepts. However, the company recently experienced a product-harm crisis that affected its loyalty in the global market, which is characterized by intense competition. The product-harm crisis was characterized by recall issues that generated concerns regarding the firms openness to its customers and the public. In addition to these concerns, the recall also exposed some digitization in the global automotive industry (Rajasekera, 2013). This paper examines this case and provides recommendations that could help the firms global leaders recapture their brand loyalty.Product-harm CrisisRajasekera….

Creating an Essential Evaluation of the Toyota Production System (TPS) Today Executive Overview
To be able to create top notch, high quality vehicles at reasonably competitive cost ranges, Toyota has evolved a built-in way of production which deals with apparatus, components, and individuals in the most beneficial way whilst assuring a safe and healthy workplace. The Toyota Production System is constructed on two primary concepts: "Just-In-Time" manufacturing and "Jidoka." Underpinning this leadership approach as well as the whole Toyota production procedure is definitely the idea that "Great Thinking leads to Great Products." Others systems reviewed within this document consist of Kanban, Muda, Kaizen, Heinjunka, Hoshin along with Genchi Genbutsu (Chandrakant 2011).
Meaning of Terms
Genchi Genbutsu
Go and discover on your own: (Genchi Genbutsu). At Toyota, Genchi Genbutsu indicates visiting the destination to understand the real scenario for distinct understanding. This really is relevant in all of the sectors since one cannot be 100 percent….