Toyota Management and Operations

This report analyzes Toyota's management and operations, exploring the differences between management and leadership, examining various leadership and management theories and approaches, and analyzing the key operational functions that contribute to Toyota's success. The report also discusses the impact of external factors on decision-making and provides recommendations for future improvements.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction of Toyota and it's management structure.................................................................3
2. Differences between management and leadership.......................................................................4
3. Different roles and theories of management and leadership in different organisational
situations..........................................................................................................................................5
4. Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of leadership and management....................5
5. Conclusions and recommendations on the impact of managers and leaders on the organisation.
.........................................................................................................................................................6
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................7
1. Introduction to the key operations of Toyota...............................................................................7
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers in the key operational functions....................................7
3. The key operational approaches to operations management and their value...............................8
6. Conclusions and recommendations for future improvements to be taken by the organisation. 10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The activity of managing different functionalities and it's operations of an organisation is
known as management. It brings an accurate format of working and interdependency of different
elements with each other. Where as, the person who use to do all these work is known as manager.
They also work to supervise the organisation and also make plans which are beneficial for them in
order to achieve goals and objectives. Toyota is one of the biggest organisation in the world, they
provide their products and services in auto mobile industry. Their service is available in around all
the countries of world, and the headquarter is at Japan. This report will help in studying the different
roles of manager and leader, along with theories and approaches that can be adopted. Their
strengths and weaknesses also get discussed, that will help in showing the impact of good
leadership and management on an organisation. Along with this, the roles and responsibilities of
manager in the key operations of organisation will be highlighted . Also, a discussion will take place
on the impact of external factors and how improvement in operational efficiencies can be achieved.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of Toyota and it's management structure.
Toyota is a multinational organisation in the world of auto mobile industry. Toyota uses
Japanese technique for making their products and services and serving their products and services in
all over the world. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. They have headquartered in Toyota
City, Aichi, Japan, with around 364,445 employees from all over the world (History of Toyota,
2019). The management hierarchy of Toyota is a combination of 3 levels, where organisation has
increased the power of their employees and manager, so that they can take important decisions
(Baboli and et. al, 2014). Management hierarchy of Toyota is as follow :-
1. Global hierarchy: This is the first level of this hierarchy, in this the power for making
decision to regional head has increased by managers of headquarter. This help Toyota to
make decision on the spot which are required, as this also help in reducing the time which
earlier was needed by them in making decisions. In this, regional head can take decisions
which are required and then have to report at headquarter, so that they can take the final and
major decisions.
2. Geographic Division : Toyota has divided the world in 8 different regions, i.e. North
America, East Asia, Japan, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, China, Asia, Caribbean
and Latin America (Bahmani-Firouzi and Azizipanah-Abarghooee, 2014). These regions
have their own headquarters, which help them in making fast decisions regarding any

problem in regional outlets.
3. Product based division: In this, Toyota has divided the world into 4 different regions, where
the base of division is products offered by them. The company have divided their products
in Lexus international, Toyota No. 1, Toyota No. 2 and Unit centre.
2. Differences between management and leadership.
Organisation need to have some specific goals and objectives that they have to achieve,
which will help an organisation in following a fix channel of path ( Binz and et al, 2014). These
goals and objectives are designed by a leader. Whereas, manager of organisation is a person, who
make plans and strategies according to the goals and objectives of organisation. Manager also use to
supervise the performance of their employees and their working so that they can make
modifications in their plans. Beneath are the comparison chart between leadership and
management:-
Basic Leadership Management
Meaning Leadership refers to the skills of
an individual for effectively
leading individuals or a group
of people.
Whereas, management is an
activity of organising the work
and operations in an
organisation.
Emphasis on Leadership use to motivate
employees, so that they can
achieve organisational goals.
Management of Toyota use to
make coordination between
different elements, so that they
can achieve personal as well as
organisational goals.
Power Leadership of Toyota has power
to make changes in their
functionalities.
Management of Toyota has
power to make changes in
working rules and regulation.
Focus on The aim focus of leadership of
Toyota is on encouraging
employees ( Johnstone, 2016).
The focus of management is on
making the working of
organisation stable.
Strategies Leadership has power to make
strategies which can change the
future of organisation.
Management make strategies
which changes according to
strategies made by leader.

Formulation of Leadership make principles and
guidelines which help Toyota in
future.
Management is a collective
form of policies and procedure
of an organisation.
Example Leader of Toyota decided to
break their system in 3 level
hierarchy.
Management work to make
plans according to it, so that
performance of current
operations do not get disturbed.
3. Different roles and theories of management and leadership in different organisational situations.
Leadership and management are the elements which help an organisation to grow in future,
as they are the most essential functions of an organisation ( Kato, NEC Corp, 2014). Effective
leadership and tough management help an organisation to achieve their goals and objectives. But,
several times it is very important for an organisation that their leaders and managers play different
roles in difficult situations, so that they can make solution for this and achieve their goals and
objectives.
Situation 1: Conflict : Modern business says that, conflict is one of the most natural process
in an organisation, but solving conflicts are very important for both manager and leader so that
organisation can achieve their goals and objective. For example, an organisation face a conflict
related to their changes related to technology. In such conditions, manager of Toyota has to make
changes in their working plans, so that they can solve the problem. Whereas, leader has to motivate
their employees and have to explain the benefits of new technology, so that their employees can
give their best in order to achieve personal as well as organisational goals and objective ( Liu and
et. al, 2015). In such conditions, manager and leader of Toyota can use the theory of Conflict
management, which says that conflict is a natural process in an organisation, but this has to be
solved by higher authorities of organisation.
Situation 2: Decision Making : Making effective decisions are very important for an
organisation, as this help organisation to follow a path which lead them in achieving their goals and
objectives. For example, leader of Toyota take a decision that they have to divide the world in more
regions, so that the complexity of decision making in their system get reduced. For this, manager
have to make plans and have to take decisions which will help them in reducing the complexity of
system and also do not disturb the current working of their operations ( Mendis, Muttaqi and Perera,
2014). For making accurate decisions, it is important for leader and manager in Toyota to adopt the
theory of contingency, so that they can take effective decisions according to different situations.

4. Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches of leadership and management.
Approaches of Leadership that Toyota can adopt :-
1. Contingency leadership theory: This approach of leadership says that, there is nothing which
is said to be the best way of leadership. According to this, leader of Toyota have to adopt
different styles in different conditions, which can give them results ( Morschett, Schramm-
Klein and Zentes, 2015). In other words, the style which give can them result are the best in
that conditions.
Strengths Weaknesses
 This leadership approach helps in
making clarity between employees.
 Help in explaining the roles and
responsibilities which employees has to
pay.
 It is not easy for anyone to change
themselves according to different
situation in very short time period.
Approaches of management that Toyota can adopt :-
1. The Behavioural approach : According to this approach, for a manger it is very important for
them to understand the behaviour of their employees, this will help them in increasing the
production and managerial efficiency of organisation ( Palizban, Kauhaniemi and Guerrero,
2014).
Strengths Weaknesses
 Increase the understanding in
organisation so that effective plans get
designed.
 New plans and strategies get
implemented easily.
 It is very time consuming process, as it is
not easy to understand the behaviour of
every employee.
Conclusion
From the above study, it has been concluded that, leader of Toyota has to adopt different
leadership styles which depends on different situations in organisation, where as manager have to
understand the behaviour of their employees for making effective plans.
5. Conclusions and recommendations on the impact of managers and leaders on the organisation.
Toyota is one of the biggest organisation in the world of auto mobile sector, they have
headquarter in Japan. In the starting of 21st century they use to control their working from Japan
only, but in 2013 they have decided to break their management system into 3 level hierarchy, where

first is Global hierarchy, which has increase the power of decision making for regional head, so that
the work load from headquarter get decreased. Second is about dividing the world in 8 different
regions, and last is dividing the world in 4 parts and the base is products offered by them. Here
management and leader of Toyota, Japan use to make strategies and plans which help them in
gaining this by not affecting their current system. For this, manager and leader of Toyota has to play
different roles and responsibilities, for which they have to adopt different approaches and theories
for making decisions. For further enhancement in system, Toyota can divide their system into more
parts, so that decision making get easier for them. Along with this, leaders and managers in Toyota
can adopt different theories and approaches, which can help them in different situations.
TASK 2
1. Introduction to the key operations of Toyota. Toyota Motor is a world biggest
corporation which is Japanese multinational automotive manufactured
company their headquarters is in Aichi city Japan. That served auto-mobiles,
luxury vehicles and engines across the world and they use different terms in
the form of services such as banking, financing services for their customers.
Most of the organization has many operations to follow that depends on the
working sector of the industry ( Pelley, Alcatel-Lucent SA, 2015). It deals with
the management operation within the organization and Toyota manage all the
aspects related to operations that take a good place in a business. They use
keys operations where Toyota dependents on the functions of their company.
There are few operation keys like managing and quality for the product and
supply chain of product and services. But Toyota should also focuses on their
quality which makes good image of production system in front of the
costumers. Therefore, Toyota uses different aspects of keys operation which
helps to maximise business growth and achieve to their set objectives and
goals.
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers in the key operational functions.
Managers are the personnel key in a business entity who are known to manage efficiency
and effectiveness in functionality area of a business. They got some instructions and rules from high

level of management in Toyota and provide training programmes to their employees. Managers
played different roles these are given below:
Finance: It is the first best operational key for an organization. Whereas Toyota has a huge
source of finance which covers more than 30 countries and regions including Japan. All financial
services coordinated by manager of Toyota, so that, managers are responsible to plan according to
the requirement and proposal of the industry and they have to focus on given funds which are used
in a correct way or not ( Pingili and et al, 2014).
Operation: According to this function manager can create effective plans and new strategies
which can be produced by utilisation of resources such as raw material and man power. Therefore,
managers have to emphasis the work according to the plan of an organization.
Strategies: This aspect of operational key includes in the analysis of strategic goals, vision
and mission and the internal or external factors of the Toyota. On the basis of these strategies
manager are able to check all the processes running according to the strategies or not.
3. The key operational approaches to operations management and their value.
These are very necessary aspects for Toyota. This because it is a large organization in the
world, so it is not easy for industry to manage their operations ( Shaheen, InterDigital Technology
Corp, 2014). Therefore, Toyota uses different type of approaches these are given below:
Just in Time: It is the production system of Toyota which aimed at decreasing time within
the production system and gives proper response time to their customer. It is a most appropriate
approach for managing operations in a effective way. Manager of the Toyota follows just in time
approach and it is very effective because supplier provide raw material given period of time to the
company and increase efficiency. So that it helps to minimize their stock price. As per the
organization, just in time is very essential part of the company because it is a more cost efficient
method of holding stocks. It always aimed to minimise the amount of goods which company hold at
one time. It is a less space needed where company don't need warehouses or storage to their space
of goods. It also saves money by preventing investments in unnecessary stock. Therefore, it is very
essential approach for managers as well as the organization.
Six Sigma: This method is used by Toyota to reduce issues from their operations. It lead
operation of management in a particular way, so that it can increase their effectiveness of working
skills based on the production functions. It is very necessary for Toyota which help to reduce their
cost and save time also helps to remove errors from them. Therefore, it helps manager to manage
their key operations in a effective manner.
Lean Production: It is used by many industries that focuses on cutting out waste. According

to lean production approach Toyota mainly focuses on their waste material problems that rises in
every activity of production. Therefore, it helps to save money by cutting out the wastes for the
organization. It is a very effective approach for managing the operations in a easiest way. It
improves quality and efficiency, reduces waste and increase productivity, or improves lead time. It
also helps Toyota to save heavy amount that are invested in waste of resources. Therefore,
organization can apply this activity on their management function.
4. External business environment factors that affect decision-making by leaders and managers.
There are few factors which affects the decision making by leaders and managers in an
organisation. These are given below :-
Technological Factor: It is important aspect for an organization to adopt some changes and
work in according to the technological factors, which leads to help in organization in a effective
manner within the dynamic business environment ( Strande and Brdjanovic, 2014). As per the
organization, Managers of Toyota should focus on their updated technologies according to the
changes in technological environment. The leaders and managers of Toyota also guiding their team
in a particular way about new changes in technologies. Which helps employees of an organization
to achieve their targeted goals and objectives in a respectful manner within the competitive
environment.
Social Factor: This factor of environment affects the functions of an organization which
determines the value system of the society. In this context, these factors are very important for
Toyota to be evaluate social culture strategies in accordance with the changes in dynamics business
environment which includes in cost structure, cultural heritage, and employees view towards
wealth, income and mobility of labour. These social factors also affects leaders and managers has to
motivate their employees in a effective way ( Webb, 2017). In order to knowledge about changes of
social factors is necessary for employees within the organization. The efficient social factor helps
Toyota to achieve their targeted goals and objectives, also increase the development and growth of
the company.
Recommendations: In context of Toyota, it has been recommended that managers and leaders
should focuses on developing working efficiency of employees so that they can achieve their targets
timely. Also they should focus on overall profitability and future growth for raising share prices of
their company and building a good brand image in a competitive market workplace. Managers
should always follow a flexible working approach in Toyota for enhancing working culture and
raising overall productivity in a effective manner.

5. How operational efficiencies can be improved to successfully meet business objectives using
appropriate management and leadership approaches.
It is an important aspect for an organization to create their operation that can help to
achieving the business goals and objectives. In this concept some approaches are useful which is
implemented by managers or leaders that given below:
Inventory Control: It is little bit difficult approach in a business, where manager has to find
some creative idea. So that they can implemented to their system to achieving their objectives and
goals.
Trait Approach: In this approach, Toyota has to hire a leader which have a good qualities
like intelligence, creative, confident ( White, 2016). It can help to find a person according to the
company requirement, who can lead their team in positive manner.
Classical Approach: According to this approach leaders and managers can adopt new
business strategies for a good performance in an organization, so that they can achieve their
inventory control. In context of Toyota, managers and leaders have only have economical needs,
they do not have any need regarding the job satisfaction. Here, its affects an organization in a
effective manner.
6. Conclusions and recommendations for future improvements to be taken by the organisation.
Toyota is one of the leading mobile company across the world. It provides their products and
services in a large number of amount. They use to perform several operations in their organisation
but some of them are very essential in respect to their performance. The key operations are different
for each organisation which depends on their functionality. Finance, operation, strategy, design of
product, forecasting, supply chain configuration, managing the quality are the key operations of
Toyota, that plays a vital role in their performance. For attaining all this in appropriate manner, they
have to adopt some approaches, that will guide the management and help them in achieving
operational efficiency in functionality. It has been recommended For future, leader of Toyota that
have innovative approach, have to invent some idea that help them in achieving some difficult
approach easily. Along with also have to make policies so that the affect of external factors on their
decisions make can be reduced. That will help them in gaining competitive advantages and
customer satisfaction.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been analysed that, leader is a person who work to lead a team
by motivating and guiding employees. They also use to make future objectives for an organisation
that will give some benefit to them. While manager is a person, who work to make plans and
strategies according to the goals and objectives made by leader. Toyota is one of the leading auto
mobile organisation of the world, they have adopted an operational hierarchy in their management.
Their leaders and managers have to play different roles in different circumstances. Apart from this,
there are different key operational functions that affect the functionality of Toyota. Hiring a leader
according to Trait approach, will help company to achieve some different changes in their
operations, which will help them in successfully meeting the goals and objectives.

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