Managing the Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Managing the Supply Chain - Essay Example Each of these factors related to Toyota have been discussed in the following sections. Background of Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1927 by Kiichiro Toyoda and it is presently a multinational automaker employing 317,716 employees worldwide. The majority of the company’s sales are generated from the overseas regions. There are currently 15 companies under the Toyota Group including non-automotive companies Towa Real Estate and Toyota Housing Corporation (Appendix 1). The company has a large fleet of cars, MPVs, SUVs and hybrid models. Toyota’s global vision is to exceed the expectations and rewarded with a smile through its commitment to quality, respect for planet and constant innovation (Toyota Motor Corporation-a, 2012). Toyota has its operations worldwide including Canada, U.S.A., Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Middle East. Its regional headquarters are in U.S.A., Belgium, Thailand and Singapore whereas its major R&D centers are in U.S.A., Japan, France, Belgium, Thailand, Australia and China (Toyota Motor Corporation-b, 2012). ... The salaried supervisors are group leaders who support the functions of whole group. Figure 1 shows an organizational structure of Toyota in relation to support and responsibilities. The production employees are a part of groups of 20-30 people as per the needs of the work area. The group leaders i.e. supervisors are responsible for the groups and report to assistant managers each of whom is responsible for 4-6 supervisors and all production related activities. The manager above him/her is also responsible for the production activities but not the daily activities like the assistant managers. Depending on the number of employees in a department a number of managers report to the assistant general manager and so on. The production system in Toyota is based on JIT system based on elimination of activities which consume resources and which do not create values for customers, and keeping the inventories at minimum levels. Overall it is a method of cutting the time taken to convert orders from customers into deliveries. But as per Toyota all this can only be achieved by philosophy of continuous improvement and respect for its customers, suppliers, dealers and employees. The employees are given vague instructions and broad targets instead of rules to inculcate the habit of setting targets for self (Iyer, 2009, p.158-160). Figure 1: Toyota's Organizational Structure of one of its facilities in U.S.A. Source: (Liker & Meier, 2005, p.223) Product Development Process & SCM The new product development process at Toyota follows the following steps: 1. The product planning department conducts research and analysis, draws up product plan including line-ups and schedules for