Toyota Strategic Management

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Toyota: Strategic Quality Management and Customer Satisfaction Krystal Hernandez, Sephra Pedraza, Daryl Raye, William Terry, Regina Twidwell MGT/449 Quality Management and Productivity August 1, 2011 Marc Najem Toyota: Strategic Quality Management and Customer Satisfaction Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota), founded in 1936 is one of the leading auto manufacturers in the world, selling vehicles in more than 170 countries. Headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, and employing 320,590 people; Toyota built a reputation as a quality manufacturer of automobiles (DATAMONITOR: Toyota Motor Corporation, 2011). According to Cusumano (2011) “Over the past 70-plus years, Toyota has evolved unique capabilities in manufacturing, quality control, supply-chain management, and product engineering, as well as sales and marketing” (p. 33). Influenced by W. Edward Deming, in 1948 Toyota began perfecting LEAN manufacturing and set the model for other manufacturers over the last decade. The Toyota Production System (TPS) has been taught, examined, and copied by industry leaders for over a decade; however, recent debacles in quality for Toyota demonstrate that organizations must reexamine their quality culture and re-invigorate their productions systems. Some argue that Katsuaki Watanabe, the company's president from 2005 to 2009, pressured the shusas (chief engineers) to cut costs too aggressively to boost profits (Taylor III, 2010). The shusas made these deep cuts, but feedback from their foreign market customers, did not reach the shusas in Toyota City, quick enough for response (Taylor III, 2010). Others argue that Toyota’s quality culture did not permeate into Toyota’s global supply chain of foreign manufacturing facilities (Liker, 2010). Toyota’s lapse in quality could even trace back to

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