IT Systems in Toyota: Planning, Purchasing, Implementation Analysis

This report examines the IT systems employed by Toyota, a multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Japan. It discusses the role of management information systems in handling business processes across the company's branches, highlighting challenges and opportunities related to planning, purchasing, and implementation. The report includes a literature review of peer-reviewed articles on these topics, summarizing the articles and detailing the challenges and opportunities in each area. It concludes that the successful implementation of management information systems can help Toyota achieve new goals and growth, while addressing potential issues like inefficient goal setting, unrealistic deadlines, unclear requirements, and integration difficulties.

Running head: IT SYSTEMS USED BY TOYOTA
IT SYSTEMS USED BY TOYOTA
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Introduction
This essay aims to discuss the topic IT systems used by Toyota. The IT system that is
used by Toyota is briefly stated in this essay and the potential challenges of the IT system is
provided in this essay. A literature review has been conducted for the topic and then the
challenges and the opportunities for the IT system are provided in this essay. This report
concludes with an appropriate conclusion for this report.
The company Toyota is the multinational manufacturer of automotive based in
Japanese and headquartered in Toyota city. The company is the second largest manufacturer
of automotive (Monden, 2018). The company specialises in the sales of the hybrid electric
vehicles all across the world.
Discussion
Summary of the articles
Management information system is extensively in the company for effective handling
of the business processes and the functions among all the branches of the company. This
information system incorporates the application of the individuals, technologies, processes
and the information by the accountants for resolving the issues of the business like the
implementation of the value of any service, commodity, and the business plan (Laudon &
Laudon, 2016). The lack of training of using the information system could lead to the failure
in the implementation of the information system in the company. The articles summarise that
the first step that is involved in the implementation of any system is the planning. The authors
claim that this is most basic function that describes efficiently all the common questions of
the methods by which the realisation of the objectives would be done or it also serves as the
guiding framework. The purchasing of the information system for any organisations is done
after determining the requirements of the organisation which is achieved by the efficient

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planning regarding the business processes of the organisation (Kini & Basaviah, 2013). The
planning equivalently comprises of a careful assessment of all available resources and
challenges that could be faced by the team of implementation. According to the authors, the
implementation of the information in any organisation provides the business with enhanced
business capabilities and the improved processes. The organisation sometimes tend to
purchase the information without planning and this leads to the incorrect or inaccurate
information system in the organisation and the benefits that are gained by the organisation is
negative.
Challenges and opportunities of planning of management information system
In any project of implementation of any new system in any organisation, the tasks of
planning and monitoring is essential for achieving any goal (Altamony et al., 2016). The
project manager collects the employees for creating an efficient team to execute the project
efficiently. Combined, any team creates the plan for the completion of any project. The
opportunities of planning for the implementation of the information system are:
Direction: It can be considered that the major task that is faced by the team members
of project is the lack of knowledge about which direction to proceed. During planning
process, the team of the project determines the tasks that are to be completed in the project
(Hoch & Dulebohn, 2013). The process of the planning offer the efficient direction to the
team and the team members.
Accountability: in the process of planning, the project team and the project manager
allocate the tasks and the duties for the completion of every task for particular employees.
The team gains advantage when any one employee holds the responsibility for every task and
they can be held accountable.

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Adequate resources: In the projects of the implementation of information system, it
has been observed that the resources of the project are finished prior the completion of the
project. The labour and finances are included in the resources (De Meyer et al., 2013). The
planning provides the team members and the team manager about an idea of what are the
resources that are to be finished prior the completion of the project and it helps in eliminating
the risk of discontinuing of the project due to lack in the resources.
Challenges in the planning phase of the implementation of the management
information for Toyota corporation can be understood by the success or failure of the
information in the organisation. Some of the challenges of the planning of the implementation
of the information system are:
Inefficient defining of goals: The major challenge in the projects of the information
system implementation are the expectation from the projects. In the situations when the
defining of the objectives and the goals is not done properly, the project fails (Sprenger &
Mönch, 2014).
Unrealistic deadlines: If any employee is being made to work more than their
allocated time, then it has been observed that the productivity and quality of the work that is
being done by the employee decreases significantly and drastically. It has been seen that the
project managers face the issue of the unrealistic dreams of the clients and the stakeholders.
Majority of the projects fails due to the unrealistic dreams of the stakeholders.
Challenges and opportunities of purchasing of management information system
The challenges involved in the purchasing of the information system are:
In the situation when the requirement is not provided clearly, it can cause serious
issues for the organisation. Specification of the requirement is considered to be the major
reason for the failure of the projects in the recent times. The change of the process of the

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work for the business is an extensive process and it increases the issues of the integration
with the purchase of any new information system in the organisation (Nofal & Yusof, 2013).
In the purchasing of the information system, there is a lack of the cooperation among the
various stakeholders. The competence of the procurement is reduced and it does not impact
effectively.
The advantages of the purchasing of the information system are the reduction of costs,
visibility of spend, the increase in productivity, ensuring control in the organisation and the
efficient use of technology. The costs are reduced by the leveraging of the volume, consisting
of the structured relationships of the suppliers and by exploiting the improvements of the
system for reducing the spend on the external environment but still improving the
performance of the supplier and the quality.
Challenges and opportunities of implementation of information system
The opportunities of the implementing the information system in the organisation can
be determined by the benefits it provides the companies and assisting in the enhancement of
the business process. The communication through the various information technology devices
helps in establishing the efficient communication among the organisation (Babaei, Gholami
& Altafi, 2015). The cultural gap and the globalisation is also affected by the implementation
of the information system. The various cultural gaps in the organisation can be eliminated
and the working environment could be enhanced and more directed towards the business
goals of the organisation. the information system has provided the companies with the ability
of performing business at significantly higher durations. As there is no requirement of storing
the information by any individual and all the data of the organisation is transferred to the
storage of the information system (Dey, Clegg & Cheffi, 2013). The cost effectiveness and
the productivity increases with the implementation of the information system in the
organisation.

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The challenges of implementation of the information system are significant for the
organisation to consider and plan properly for reducing the impact of the challenges in the
working of the information system. As the automation of the processes is done for most of
the process of the organisation, it leads to the reduction of the employees of the organisations
(Shatat, 2015). For integrating the information system, there might be a requirement of
significant high cost in the situation of the software, people and the hardware. The hardware,
software and any other devices must be rented, supported and bought. The training of the
employees is required to be done efficiently for training them regarding any situation that
they are unfamiliar with or any kind of the information system or software (Chang et al.,
2015). The information system contributes in the efficient working of the organisations. The
information systems are presenting the organisations with the possibility of achieving the
efficient growth.
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that the implementation of the management information
system in the organisation would help the organisation to achieve new goals and obtain
growth. The company Toyota is the multinational manufacturer of automotive based in
Japanese and headquartered in Toyota city. Management information system is extensively in
the company for effective handling of the business processes and the functions among all the
branches of the company. This information system incorporates the application of the
individuals, technologies, processes and the information by the accountants for resolving the
issues of the business like the implementation of the value of any service, commodity, and
the business plan. In any project of implementation of any new system in any organisation,
the tasks of planning and monitoring is essential for achieving any goal. In the situation when
the requirement is not provided clearly, it can cause serious issues for the organisation.

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Specification of the requirement is considered to be the major reason for the failure of the
projects in the recent times.

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References
Altamony, H., Tarhini, A., Al-Salti, Z., Gharaibeh, A., & Elyas, T. (2016). The relationship
between change management strategy and successful enterprise resource planning
(ERP) implementations: A theoretical perspective. International Journal of Business
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Chang, B., Kuo, C., Wu, C. H., & Tzeng, G. H. (2015). Using fuzzy analytic network process
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De Meyer, A., Estrella, R., Jacxsens, P., Deckers, J., Van Rompaey, A., & Van Orshoven, J.
(2013). A conceptual framework and its software implementation to generate spatial
decision support systems for land use planning. Land Use Policy, 35, 271-282.
Dey, P. K., Clegg, B., & Cheffi, W. (2013). Risk management in enterprise resource planning
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Hoch, J. E., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2013). Shared leadership in enterprise resource planning and
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Kini, R. B., & Basaviah, S. (2013). Critical success factors in the implementation of
enterprise resource planning systems in small and midsize businesses: Microsoft
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(IJEIS), 9(1), 97-117.

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Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Monden, Y. (2018). Toyota management system: Linking the seven key functional areas.
Routledge.
Nofal, M. I., & Yusof, Z. M. (2013). Integration of business intelligence and enterprise
resource planning within organizations. Procedia Technology, 11, 658-665.
Shatat, A. S. (2015). Critical success factors in enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
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Sprenger, R., & Mönch, L. (2014). A decision support system for cooperative transportation
planning: Design, implementation, and performance assessment. Expert Systems with
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