Question

Hi, can you answer this question in more detail?

Subject: Quality Management and Practices

9.

Research on the current state of Toyota's Company quality management covers the following topics, demonstrate your theoretical understanding and skills in evaluating existing operational management issues, and use a quality management framework for analysis.

• Total Quality Management…

( Words: 900 - Need to be original, Don't direct copy )

Answer 1

TOYOTA - TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND PRACTICES

Total Quality Management (TQM) of Toyota.

For Toyota, the most important of these efforts are what took place in the late 1960s. At that time Toyota, a truck manufacturer, decided to begin producing passenger cars and they made a determined effort to appraise and improve their methods at a fundamental level. They succeeded phenomenonally at this and by 1980 were producing the highest quality automobiles in the world. They called their new methods "Total Productive Maintenance" or TPM.

What Toyota discovered was that the dominant cause of product defects was wear in the machines that made the parts. In turn this wear was caused by the accumulation of dirt and chips (metal shavings). The problem was that workers followed the basic American practice which was to operate a machine until it broke and only then call in an engineer to fix the machine. In some cases they would just throw the machine away and order a new one from America. This resulted in defective parts as the machine wore down and lack of productivity while the machine was waiting to be fixed or replaced. Another complication was that workers tended to move from machine to machine and often confusion resulted. How could systemic problems like this be fixed? To solve the problems Toyota completely changed the way it operated its plants.

The implementation of TQM by Toyota

In order to implement TQM, Toyota corporations focused on the following phases:

• The company extended the management responsibility past the instantaneous services and products
• Toyota examined how consumers applied the products generated and this enabled the company to develop and the improve its commodities
• Toyota focused on the insubstantial impacts on the procedures as well as how such effects could be minimized through optimization
• Toyota focused on the kaizen (incessant processes development) in order to ensure that all procedures are measurable, repeatable, and visible.

  

KAIZEN

Standardized work as well as KAIZEN would be the means through which people help to make the Toyota Manufacturing System function. People are probably the most important component of the whole system. With no support of everybody involved, not the main system works.

The foundation of the Kaizen method consists of 5 founding elements:

• teamwork,
• personal discipline,
• improved morale,
• quality circles, and.
• suggestions for improvement.

Toyota’s Just-in-Time method

Toyota started using JIT inventory controls in the 1970s and took more than 15 years to perfect its process. Toyota sends off orders to purchase production parts only when it receives new orders from customers.

Toyota and JIT manufacturing will succeed as long as the company maintains a steady production rate, with high-quality workmanship and no machine breakdowns at the plant that could stall production. Additionally, it needs reliable suppliers that can always deliver parts quickly, and the ability to efficiently assemble machines that put together its vehicles.

Making only "what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed"

Producing quality products efficiently through the complete elimination of waste, inconsistencies, and unreasonable requirements on the production line (known respectively in Japanese as muda, mura, muri).

In order to fulfill an order from a customer as quickly as possible, the vehicle is efficiently built within the shortest possible period of time by adhering to the following:

1. When a vehicle order is received, production instructions must be issued to the beginning of the vehicle production line as soon as possible.
2. The assembly line must be stocked with the required number of all necessary parts so that any kind of ordered vehicle can be assembled.
3. The assembly line must replace the parts used by retrieving the same number of parts from the parts-producing process (the preceding process).
4. The preceding process must be stocked with small numbers of all types of parts and produce only the numbers of parts that were retrieved by an operator from the next process.

The TPS concept

For Toyota, jidoka means that a machine must come to a safe stop whenever an abnormality occurs. Achieving jidoka, therefore, requires building and improving systems by hand until they are reliable and safe. First, human engineers meticulously build each new line component by hand to exacting standards, then, through incremental kaizen (continuous improvement), steadily simplify its operations.

Eventually, the value added by the line's human operators disappears, meaning any operator can use the line to produce the same result. Only then is the jidoka mechanism incorporated into actual production lines. Through the repetition of this process, machinery becomes simpler and less expensive, while maintenance becomes less time consuming and less costly, enabling the creation of simple, slim, flexible lines that are adaptable to fluctuations in production volume.

  

The work done by hand in this process is the bedrock of engineering skill. Machines and robots do not think for themselves or evolve on their own. Rather, they evolve as we transfer our skills and craftsmanship to them. In other words, craftsmanship is achieved by learning the basic principles of manufacturing through manual work, then applying them on the factory floor to steadily make improvements. This cycle of improvement in both human skills and technologies is the essence of Toyota's jidoka. Advancing jidoka in this way helps to reinforce both our manufacturing competitiveness and human resource development.

The TQM Implementation Issues

The Executives and Quality Managers face some challenges while implementing Quality Management Systems in organizations. In fact, with lack of the implementation resources such as monetary and human resources in any organization, the implementation of TQM cannot be successful. Towards the implementation of programs and projects in organizations, the financial and human resources have become the pillar stones.

The top executives may fail to provide and scale-up adequate training to the suppliers and new workforces. As a result, cracks are created in the rigorous TPS system. In addition, lack of leadership at the top management might cause challenges in the implementation of TQM. Therefore, in designing the organizational structures and systems that impact quality, the senior executives and managers must be responsible as elaborated in the figure2 below.

Conclusion

Total Quality Management is a concept applied in automobile industry, including the Toyota Corporation. It focuses on continuous improvement across all branches and levels of an organization. Being part of Toyota, the concept defines the way in which the organization can create value for its customers and other stakeholders. Through TQM, Toyota Corporation has been able to create value, which eventually leads to operation efficiencies.