Task 19.1.

a Operations management Operations management is a decisive factor in the modern business world and ensures the production and distribution of services. It not only deals with the production and distribution but also focus on every activity in the organization. It is the systematic or structured method to convert inputs in to finished products. We can say operations management encourages the internal development process of the organization to attain quality in the output. The nature of operations management varies with the nature of the nature of the organization. For example the operations management for a textile company should differ from a chemical company. Operations management has a vital role in every department in the organization. The operations management set up the future plans of an organization; it clearly tells how an organization can carry out the future activities in an effective manner. It also set up achievable standards for the organization and makes sure that everyone in the organization participates in it. Operations management has a hand in selecting the skilled and right staff for the organization. It also involved in the process of motivation and delegation of jobs to the staffs. Sometimes it is necessary for the organization to take corrective actions, and the operations management is the concerned depart for that. It also concentrates to make the output quality based and the work environment more fruitful. The operations management decides the administrative structure for the organization and it also responsible for the staff training and employee retention techniques. Operations management helps the organization to gain competitive advantage over its competitors and it plays a vital role to encapsulate the operational strategy and the organizational strategy. It helps the organizations to take right decisions at time and critical factor in the overall decision making process. The operations management in the modern world has grown up to a level such that it uses the management science and operational research techniques.

Task 19.1.b The Toyota Company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. The first car model from Toyota was AA introduced in the year 1936, one year before Toyoda started the company. Lexus and Scion brands are the most famous brands from the company. Apart from the production of cars, Toyota holds major and minor shares of the other leading motor companies like Daihatsu, Hino Motors, Fuji, Isuzu Motors, Yamaha Motors, and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. The company has more than 500 subsidiary units. Toyota has its presence in the finance sector with the name Toyota financial services and the company also involved in the process of building robots. (Toyota company official website, 2010) Toyotas vision statement clearly tells, Toyota stands for the well being of people, society, and the environment and believes that quality manufacturing can develop the society. Toyota always makes its contribution to develop the society through its innovative and top quality products and services. (Toyota company official website, 2010).Toyota has manufacturing plants in many parts of the world and the company is based on the principles like, respect every nations culture and spirit and corporate activities should be useful for the society. The company also dedicated to provide quality products using latest technologies to make satisfied customers. The Toyota management encourages the individual abilities and the spirit o team work and respect the hard work of its labors. Toyota always welcomes new partnerships and keen to gain mutual benefit together with the community and its partners. (Toyota company official website, 2010). Toyota is committed to manufacture environment friendly and quality products, to support the development process of the entire community. For example we can say Toyota has a big hand in converting Japan as one of the place to get quality automobiles and automobile services. It also respects and encourages the individuals in the company and putting together the individual abilities to achieve

the quality products or services. The company believes in innovation and always develops products or services beneficial to all of its investors and the partners. Task 19.1.c As we discussed already, Toyota is committed to provide quality oriented products or services. The team working principle adopted by the company is known as Toyotaism is perfect working model for every organization in the modern world (Management help website, 2010). According to Bradley K and Hill the performance objectives depend on the factors like quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. Toyota always much priority to quality oriented products and services. Also the marketing surveys and research shows that Toyota vehicles are ranked in the top five. The quality policy helped Toyota to maintain its customer satisfaction level and helped them to gain the customer satisfaction world wide. The quality cars from Toyota motors emits less fumes and satisfies the requirements of pollution control boards of most of the nations. Toyota is well known for the passenger safety measures. The Toyota has taken every step to reduce the complexity at the production units by introducing the small and simple machine parts. The small and simple machineries not only provide flexibility to the workers but also increase the speed of production. Toyota is committed to deliver goods and services to the customers in time, and the company following the Just-in-time principle. Toyota also uses the Kanban control system in their production units to measure the efficiency of production. The above discussed factors make Toyota a dependable one. Another important factor is flexibility; Toyota has its production unit in most part of the world. The ability to adopt different manufacturing locations helped them to produce the quality products independent of production locations. Toyota has taken every step to reduce the cost; their quality oriented approach helped them to reduce the production costs. For example in order to reduce the cost Toyota has decided to shit some of their production units (Mini Lorries,

trucks) to other part of the world(Asian , Latin American). The performance objectives o Toyota helped them to provide quality products or services to its customers in the right time with a reasonable price. Task 19.2.a All the business processes in an organization should be related and working towards to achieve a common goal. As per the definition from Davenport and Short (1990) business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. There are basically three types of activities. They are Management process- the management process is known for controlling the entire activity within the organization. The second one is the operational process, which deals with the core activities of an organization. The final one is the supporting process, its main aim to provide support to the core activities. Business resources Resources are necessary for every business; we can divide the resources as two basic types tangible and intangible. Tangible resources are finance, humans and fixed assets like land. Following are the tools and techniques used to understand the systems and resources. 1. Poka-Yoke (Mistake Proofing) is one of the zero quality control systems, and the system work in such a way that to eliminate all the defected items from the finished products. 2. Statistical tools -Sometimes statistical tools and process diagrams help us to measure and understand the system processes. 3. Kaizen (continuous improvement)- Toyota company has already proved that the Kaizen method is more effective to their business environment like other companies from Japan. This method aims the improvement at every level of production. 4. The PDCA cycle- It is the method useful for a problematic situation. It helps the organization to recover the problematic situation.

5.

There are some other tools used for the performance measurement.

6. Swot analysis - focus on the key issues, where SWOT stands for strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats where strength and weakness are internal factor and opportunities and threats are external factors (Marketing Teacher, 2000). 7. Fishbone diagram - It concentrates all causes for an effect or problem. According to (Nancy, (2004)) the fishbone diagram can be used to structure a brainstorming session. 8. Pareto's Principle - The 80-20 Rule- states that 20 % of cases are causing the 80% of the problems, so the efforts should be more focused to the 20 % of cases

http://www.vitalentusa.com/learn/6-sigma_vs_kaizen_1.php http://www.12manage.com/methods_kaizen.html

Task 19.2.b Define quality audit and review systems. For Toyota identify its system and recommend an appropriate quality audit system, to manage and monitor quality to standards, for implementation. Justify your choice and discuss how the system can be adapted. Task 19.2.c Define Quality culture. Highlight the culture of Toyota and discuss how a new culture can be effectively introduced in Toyota to ensure continuous monitoring and development of the process. Task 19.3.a Monitor systems and work activities of Toyota and identify the major problems affecting the systems. Also identify the opportunities that Toyota can avail to improve business process. Task 19.3.b Recommend improvements which align with the organizations objectives and goals and which result in a reduction in the problems and increment in the efficiency of the systems. Also suggest how organization can avail the opportunities. Task 19.3.c

Evaluate the impact of the proposed recommendations within Toyota and how feasible they are to implement for the company. Task 19.3.d For the feasible recommendations develop an appropriate plan for implementation and evaluate the possible changes, within the company, after successful completion of the plan. References Bradley, K. and Hill, (1994). In Clark, H., et al, (1994). Organization and Identities Davenport, T.H. and Short, J.E. (1990 summer). "The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign," Sloan Management Review, pp. 11-27.