Toyota

Toyota

Introduction

Toyota being one of the chief operators of automobiles has achieved strong product quality status all over the world that serves to be an element of its corporate support. The products of Toyota were so reliable making it possible for the company to earn acceptance in all the leading countries of the domain. However, with the expansion of the Toyota's experiences, the expectations of the customers increased. The situation suddenly got change for the company in the year 2010 by the announcement of the safety recalls made by the company. This essay highlight the safety recalls issue of Toyota by focusing whether the issue relates to the quality management problem or it relates to the settlement of inconsistent priorities by the company in the field of operational strategy.

Discussion

The competitive strategies that have evolved in the automobile industry over a period of last 100 years indicated that Toyota has more concerns for the maintenance of the quality of its products, and in this regard have received a number of awards. However, the major focus of most of the automobile companies remains on gaining competitive edge over their competitors by expanding the business. They outsource the functions of their business considering it as an important element to be successful in competitiveness (Alvarez & Stenbackay, 2006). Sometimes on the way to gain competitive edge they even neglect the importance of the quality standards. The similar situation happened with the world's largest automobile company_ Toyota.

The recalls have been faced by many vehicles. There were three separate recalls made by Toyota Corporation between the period of 2009 and 2010. The recalls were initiated when the company received complaints regarding the unintended acceleration faced by a large number of automobiles produced by the corporation. The first recall was related to the wrong placement of the floor mat into the floor pedal which can trap the pedal. The second recall was made when the company identified the mechanical sticking of the acceleration pedals leading to the accelerations. Following these two recalls, a separate issue was called by Toyota in the year 2010 focusing on the issue of software of hybrid anti-lock brake (Takahashi, 2010).

The positive tradeoffs that are associated with the outsourcing of the production function to the supplier firms indicates that the company can face lower input costs and can gain the efficiency in overall production process by gaining the expertise of the specialized supplier firm, ...