Toyota Production System - Operations Management for Competitive Advantage - Case Study Example

Assignment 1 – Scenario University name Student name Student id Course Date Introduction Our company needs to ensure proper understanding of trends that have been taking place in the automotive industry. The knowledge about the industry trends can be of great benefit to our company as it will ensure that its operations are relevant in the market and able to achieve competitive advantages. The company operates in a market that is very competitive with many changes due to the technological change that has been taking place in the industry. Many companies operating in the industry are looking for the best ways of ensuring ha they are competitive by adopting current technology in their operations. This report is trying to explore various factors in the industry that can be considered in the process of ensuring the success of the company. Some of these factors include the logistics and supply, lean manufacturing, mass customisation, manufacturing simulation software and Toyota production system. The report will compare the systems of our company with those of the other firms operating in the industry to assess how our company needs to operate in the industry (Chase, 2006). The production systems of Toyota will be used as a benchmark to assess the changes taking place since when it started to evaluate the strategies that our company needs to use to be competitive in the industry. Mass customisation in the automobile industry will also be evaluated to assess what effects it has on the operations and the overall performance of the company. The various software that can be crucial for the improvement of the performance of the company will be evaluated how and why the company can make use of the systems to achieve its objectives. Lean manufacturing will be evaluated to ass how the principal will be in a position to reach into the organization. Logistics & Supply Efficient management of logistics in the automobile industry has been considered as the survival factor due to the high competition in the industry. The increasing number of the automakers in the industry has increased competition pressure where the flexibility in material management and the flow of information in the automobile assembly companies is crucial to the future growth of the industry (McGinnis, 2007). The segmentation and fragmentation of models of vehicles are growing leading to many changes in the industry as automakers are looking for the best ways of becoming competitive. There has been increased complexity of the models customized concerning the way individual vehicles are being equipped. Our company should ensure that the supply chain does include enhancing the relationships among the suppliers, sales channel, warehousing, distribution, manufacturing, and transportation among other related facilities and functions. The management of the company needs to ensure that there is a good flow of materials to guarantee uninterrupted production process through ensuring that there is proper management of both external and internal logistics. The internal logistics of the company can entail the relationship linking transportation, procurement, production planning and control (McGinnis, 2007). The management of the company needs to ensure that there is the effective and efficient management of the external logistics that can include collaboration with sub-suppliers, contractors, customers and service providers. To ensure proper management of the inventory the company needs to use just in time approach that can assist in ensuring that there are enough materials to meet the customer requirements. Source: http://www.innovanet.com/services/operations-enhancement/supply-chain-and-logistics/ Toyota Production System The production system has been looking for the best ways that can ensure elimination of the possible waste in the production process. Toyota Company has managed to eliminate waste by adopting production mechanisms that are efficient to ensure the reduction in the production costs due to the elimination of wastage. The management of Toyota Company has been working towards improving the production system to enhance the efficiency levels. This has been possible through making use of the technological advancements in the production process. The company has ensured use of technology in making vehicles that have the features that can meet the expectations of the customers in the market. The technology use has assisted in the process making vehicles within the shortest time possible and in the most efficient manner. The production system of Toyota Company is based on two concepts aiming at ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in the operations (Brian and Dawson, 2003). The first concept does include automation of the production process to improve efficiency. The second concept is just in time that aims at producing only what is required in the next process hence ensuring a continuous flow of the production process. Our company needs to learn a lesson from the Toyota Company. For instance, the production system of our company needs to be automated with an aim improving the efficiency in the process of production. This can assist the company in ensuring that the production costs are manageable by ensuring efficiency in the process of production (Brian and Dawson, 2003). Automating the production system will assist our company in eliminating the possible waste that can be associated with human labour. Besides, the quality of the products is likely to increase hence making the products competitive in the industry. Source: http://www.ifao.de/Lean-Manufacturing.43.0.html?&L=2 Mass Customisation Mass customisation is manufacturing techniques that do combine personalization and flexibility of customized products with low production costs that can be achieved through mass production. Our company employs the use of mass customisation aiming at achieving economic value and strategic benefit (Chase, 2006). This strategy can be of great benefits to our company as it can achieve some competitive advantages in the market due to the cost advantages realized by adopting mass customisation. Besides, our company can be in a position to change or add the functionalities to the core product or even build new products from the scratch. Our company can be in a position to discus with the clients in the process of determining the precise product that can best meet the expectations of the customers. This can involve personalized marketing where our company can be marketing its products to individual customers. Source: https://treehouselogic.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/customization-vs-mass-customization/ Therefore, Mass Customisation will have implication for our company as the company can employ this strategy in the process of making its products relevant in the industry. This is because the company can be in a position to design products that can meet the needs of the customers in a better way. A customer can be given the chance to give the information concerning the specifications of the products hence assisting in ensuring customer satisfaction. Customization of the products can assist our company in ensuring that the features of the products are desirable to the customers (McCarthy, 2004). This is because the products can be manufactured based on the specifications provided by the customers concerning the products. Besides, mass customization can be crucial in making company unique in the market as the customers can be involved in the designing process of the products. Manufacturing Simulation Software Manufacturing simulation software is used in organizations in the process of improving logistics and evaluating the possible changes in the manufacturing process (Benedettini, 2013). Our company can use manufacturing simulation software in the process of analysing processes, job routing, packaging systems, warehousing, inventory control, staffing requirements, and distribution. The manufacturing process flow can be made fast; thus, assisting in ensuring that the company meets the demand in the market. Therefore, our company can make use of manufacturing simulations software in optimizing the manufacturing process. Customized displays can be build containing the model information aiming at improving the understanding of the manufacturing process in the organization. Our company is suited with various software options that can include plant simulations, system dynamics, discrete event simulations, agent-based modelling and intelligent simulation. These system options can be used in the process of improving the operations aimed at enhancing the productivity of the organization. The use of the software in the process of manufacturing products can be important for the survival of the automobile industry. This is because of the high competition that has been taking place in the automobile industry that has been an increase in the pressure for ensuring efficiency and improved quality (Benedettini, 2013). Our company needs to look for the best strategies that can assist in reducing the time taken in the process of developing new products as they compete to launch a new product in the industry. As a result, our company will be in a position to compete well in the market due to the efficiency in the operations achieved as the company makes use of the software in manufacturing. Source: http://www.simulationsoftware.com/list.php/category/36-manufacturing-simulation Lean Manufacturing Lean manufacturing is said to be the systematic elimination of the wastage in the manufacturing process. It considers the wastage that takes place by overburdening manufacturing system and unevenness in the workloads. Our company can ensure lean manufacturing by coming up with steps aimed at reducing wastage (Holweg, 2007). Eliminating waste can assist in improving quality and reducing the production costs leading to increasing in the company profitability. Our company can work towards improving the flow of manufacturing process by employing some techniques such as production levelling aiming at ensuring that there is efficiency in the use of the company resources in the manufacturing systems. However, our company needs to ensure that it is too lean as there are some challenges that can be faced in the process of adopting lean manufacturing in the manufacturing systems. For instance, lean manufacturing can result in compromised quality as the focus can be geared towards reduced costs of production forgetting the need to assure quality (Holweg, 2007). Therefore, our company needs to ensure that there is a balance between the focus of reduced costs of production and quality of products. Source: http://www.aecsoluzioni.it/wp/en/lean-manufacturing-produzione/ References Benedettini, Ornella; Tjahjono, Benny (2013). "Towards an improved tool to facilitate simulation modelling of complex manufacturing systems". The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 43 (1-2): 191–199 Brian Bremner, B. and C. Dawson (November 17, 2003). "Can Anything Stop Toyota?: An inside look at how it's reinventing the auto industry". Business Week. Chase, Richard B.; Jacobs, F. Robert; Aquilano, Nicholas J. (2006). Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (11th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Holweg, Matthias (2007). "The genealogy of lean production". Journal of Operations Management. 25 (2): 420–437 McCarthy, I.P. (2004). "Special issue editorial: the what, why and how of mass customization". Production Planning & Control. 25 (4). McGinnis M. A. (2007), Military Logistics: Insights for Business Logistics, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management Vol 22. http://www.aecsoluzioni.it/wp/en/lean-manufacturing-produzione/ http://www.simulationsoftware.com/list.php/category/36-manufacturing-simulation https://treehouselogic.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/customization-vs-mass-customization/ http://www.innovanet.com/services/operations-enhancement/supply-chain-and-logistics/ http://www.ifao.de/Lean-Manufacturing.43.0.html?&L=2 Read More