Question

Toyota (GB) have implemented the Entropy System at their head office in Epsom, two training centres in Salford and Nottingham, and two vehicle distribution centres in Portbury and Burnaston. It provides a centralised system for data capture and is used for HSEQ task management. It is also used to manage a range of internal audits for HSEQ regulatory compliance, HSEQ standards compliance and internal process verification/validation.

Toyota (GB) have built their need for compliance systems over a number of years. In 1991 it was felt that for Toyota to compete within the UK fleet market, it would be beneficial to achieve compliance with the quality standard BS5750, which later became ISO 9001. In 1995 a quality department was set up and the various departmental and site systems created over the past 4 years were amalgamated into one centralised management system.

In 1999, as part of their commitment to the environment, Toyota Motor Corporation announced the requirement for all manufacturing sites to achieve compliance with the environmental standard ISO 14001; a second directive soon followed requesting all overseas distributors to follow suit.

In 1999, a new health & safety standard -OHSAS 18001- was also launched and, upon review, Toyota (GB) soon realised that their system for managing health & safety compliance was not as effective as

it could have been.

Both the above events provided the catalyst for a new business objective to develop an integrated (quality, environment, health & safety) management system in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.

During the development of the integrated management system, it became apparent that their document management system was unable to record business risks, produce audit checklists, manage and report incidents, provide notification of outstanding tasks, handle objectives or manage audits and non-conformances. In 2001 a team of Toyota managers attended “the annual Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents conference” to review the range of software solutions available and the Entropy System was concluded to be the most suitable application.

The complete Entropy System was purchased in July 2001 and after an intense period of data inputting, triple certification was achieved in September 2001.

The Entropy System is both a user- friendly and cost-effective solution backed up by Entropy International’s willingness to support customer requirements. Working with Entropy International, Toyota (GB) have adapted some aspects of the System for their specific needs and found Entropy particularly helpful in this regard. One such area was the creation of a register for licences and certificates per site, such as fire certificates and forklift truck licences, to aid the management team in easily identifying expiry dates.

Toyota (GB) believe in establishing strong working relationships with their business partners; to this end they also work closely with Entropy International to develop their user- specific requirements in order to benefit other users. These include improvements such as quick identification of active/completed action plans, development of the risk assessment (particularly environmental aspect) methodology, the ability to activate/de-activate sites, removing the ability to assign responsibilities to personnel no longer employed.

Both the vehicle distribution centres employ a large number of contract staff. Despite not being direct employees, the Entropy System has allowed Toyota (GB) to track information pertinent to these contractors for corporate compliance purposes. Toyota (GB) are currently working towards providing their business partners with access to the Entropy System so they can review and input compliance data.

Recent changes in Toyota’s structure have meant that the parts logistics operation has now been transferred from Toyota (GB’s) immediate control to become part of Toyota’s integrated Europe-wide organisation. Whilst it was agreed that the system should still be managed by the Toyota (GB) compliance team, in order to provide Pan-European access, it was no longer viable to host the parts logistics data on the Toyota (GB) web-server. The data was migrated to a hosting environment at Entropy International, which now provides access to the parts logistics management team regardless of their location. Toyota (GB) is dedicated to fulfilling the expectations of their stakeholders, and achievement of the highest health, safety, environment and quality standards is central to Toyota’s philosophy. Kaizen (the Japanese philosophy of continuous business improvement) is used in every area of the business to search for a better way to increase performance, quality and efficiency and thus reduce costs. Toyota’s brand reputation, and protection thereof, is also of paramount importance throughout the organisation and their commitment to compliance is an active part of this. The company constantly review their legal obligations and commitments via the compliance team at Toyota (GB) who manage the impact to the businesses as a result of an ever-changing environment. The Entropy System has been found to deliver on all their expectations.

Question 1

According to the case’s contents, please identify the business challenges as facing by the TOYOTA.

The focus of the answer:

1. The challenging business environment for sustainability

2. which challenges that relate to car industry (Toyota). (refer to the case TOYATA facing those quality standards to meet the quality of Toyota. )

3. The legal aspect for safety  to meet Customers  expectation.

4. conclusion to link to CSR concepts for sustainability.

Answer 1

The car industry is a challenging industry currently when it comes to sustainability and environment.
Toyota has to focus upon creating a sustainable and hybrid cars which does not consume non-renewable resources. Scarcity and high prices of petrol and diesel are known by everyone. Toyota, in order to be a sustainable organisation, should focus upon creating hybrid cars and electric cars for saving the environment.
The risks and challenges car industry faces today is harming the environment because of increased pollution through emissions of fuels. It is also contributing to the health factor of the people as through harmful emissions, people are being very prone to skin and respiratory issues.
It becomes extremely important for Toyota to focus on the health of the consumers by providing them with cars which do not contribute to the air pollution.
Not only this, through cutting down the use of fuels, Toyota will do a bit towards CSR. As under CSR, it becomes mandatory to contribute towards the society and people, Toyota can do a bit by reducing the amount of pollution they contribute to the environment.

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