Managing Operation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 2

Managing Operation - Essay Example Toyota is a Japanese car manufacturing company and it is one of the leading companies in the global automobile industry, producing well known models such as Corolla, Camry and Lexus. Though a late entrant compared to General Motors and Ford, Toyota had become one strongest player in the automobile industry. In an industry generally considered to be mature in terms of technology, Toyota had continued to set benchmarks for providing value to customers more effectively than competitors. Toyota had also redefined the rules of operation management in various areas like product development, manufacturing process, vendor management, customer satisfaction and human resource management. The formal establishment of Toyota motor company ltd., took place in 1937 and since then it has moved onto become the leader in the global automobile industry. By March 31 2008, Toyota group approximately sold 8.9 million vehicles in 170 countries under the Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands. Since the automobile industry is now facing a recession, Toyota aims to achieve sustainable growth by building a more flexible and stronger operational process and corporate structure to counter the challenges of the hyper competitive market world over (Annual Report, Toyota, 2008). The key objective of this paper will be to examine and evaluate how Toyota successfully manages key components of its operational management such as meeting customer requirements, improving product quality, effective implementation of projects as well as efficient monitoring and evaluation of completed projects. The essay will utilise the open system organisational theory and how it is manifested in the Toyota Production System (TPS) to guide the operations of the company. Thereafter, the TPS will be utilised to highlight how Toyota manages the procedures associated with new product introduction and old product improvement as well as