Research Paper on "Sustainable Management Futures for Toyota Motors"

Research Paper 10 pages (3151 words) Sources: 9

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Toyota Motors is a worldwide company that has grown to be one of the most successful in the world. In the United States, the company started as Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. On October 31, 1957. When sales began in 1958, the company sold only 288 vehicles. With the arrival of the Land Cruiser, American sales gained momentum, which culminated in the Toyota Corona as the first popular Toyota in the United States. In 1966, the company's sales had increased to more than 20,000 units. Toyota built its reputation as a supplier of high-quality, reliable vehicles and sales continued to increase. At the end of 1975, Toyota has become the No. 1 import brand in the country, surpassing Volkswagen in this position. During the 1980s, Toyota became the first import automaker that sold more than one million vehicles in the United States in one year. During the same year, 1986, Toyota brought its first manufacturer into the country, and started building cars on American soil. During the next two decades, the company has grown exponentially. It currently has the annual capacity to build about 2.2 million cars and trucks. It has 15 plants across North America.

Toyota Motors is also focused upon its role in the community, a drive that grew particularly during the 1980s, when the company gained some prominence in the American market. In this spirit, the Toyota USA Foundation was established in 1987. In an effort towards more environmentally friendly products, Toyota began the new millennium with the Prius, the first mass-produced gas/electric hybrid car in the world. The tailpipe emissions from this vehicle were 90% less than conventional cars at the time. This was followed by the 2004 Prius, featuring Toyota's new, breakthrough hybrid technology. This technology was expanded in various environmentally friendly efforts, including the luxury hybrid, Lexus RX 400h and a hybrid option for the Toyota Highlander. The third-generation Prius, with an estimated EPA fuel economy of 50 miles per gallon, was launched in 2009. The company therefore positioned itself to become one of the most socially and environmentally responsible in the vehicle business. Furthermore, its focus on quality, social and environmental responsibility has provided Toyota with the leading edge in motor manufacturing.

According to Stapp (2005), environmental legislation has rapidly become a necessity with the increasing carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S. transportation system. The author notes that the industry is responsible for more emissions in the United States than any other national economy. The author cites the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change in estimating that only China tops the United States in the amount of these emissions.

To curb the increasing danger posed by the emissions, each American state has implemented its own legislation regarding emissions from vehicles. The state of California, for example, was the first in the world to implement a law requiring limits on greenhouse gas emissions not only from factories and commercial vehicles, but also from passenger vehicles. The effect was that car companies were given a decade to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from all new vehicles sold in the state by 30%. This is significant, as state residents are responsible for more than 1.5 million new vehicle purchases per year. Other states that have followed suit include New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont.

While many vehicle manufacturers have resisted the new legislation on the grounds that it would result in unmanageably high vehicle prices, Toyota manufacturers have created a platform of responsible, clean vehicle manufacturing operations. At the time of writing, Toyota has sold 100,000 hybrid cars in the United States, counting from the year 2000. The company is also part of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, consisting of various entities that collaborate to advance cleaner vehicles. Nevertheless, Stapp (2005) notes that even Toyota Motors have met the new legislation with some misgivings, despite its focus on curbing its contribution to global warming and implementing action plans to address environmental issues.

In recognition of the current state of the earth and the effect of human activities upon the climate, the public has increasingly supported the purchase and manufacture of hybrid vehicles. These purchases have also steadily climbed in response to the increasing oil and fuel prices throughout the world.

In its 2010 Environmental Report for its United States branches, Toyota professes to recognize the need for environmental measures in the motoring industry. At the heart of this recognition is the fact that the increasing global, and urban, population will include increasing mobility needs, creating challenges in terms of sustainability (Toyota, 2010).

In response, Toyota has created the Global vision 2020, providing precise guidelines for the company's future sustainability. To accomplish this, the company has taken a global view of the sustainability issue, in terms of creating a sustainability plan not only for the finished product, but also for the process of creating the final product, as well as the environment and society within which this process occurs. As such, the environmental, social, and economic consequences of the company's actions are carefully considered in order to decrease the negative impacts and increase the positive ones across all the stages of vehicle manufacture, including the supply of materials, design, manufacturing, sales, and end of life.

Because of the number of entities affected by these efforts, sustainability cannot be ensured by the efforts of Toyota alone. Instead, the opinions of all stakeholders such as local communities, non-governmental organizations, and academia are considered. The sustainability drive is therefore a team effort rather than one that a single individual or company can accomplish.

In addition to customers and other stakeholders, Toyota also works with its business partners to ensure greater future sustainability. What the report refers to as the "mobility system," for example, includes planning, infrastructure development, traffic management, regulatory requirements, and transport types. Toyota sees itself as part of this system, within which it must also work to accomplish collective sustainability. The company therefore also recognizes the need to create a collective vision and strategy for sustainability across the industry.

One of the ways in which Toyota has worked to create this type of sustainability, as mentioned earlier, is its work to create environmentally friendlier vehicles to ultimately replace conventional vehicles; a plan at the core of which are hybrid vehicles. In addition, the company has also implemented a Comprehensive Environmental Technology (CET) solution, which recognizes that there is no single technological solution to create sustainability within the industry. Although hybrid vehicles are at the core of this effort, the company supplements this with additional and wider efforts towards developing sustainable technologies.

Various strategies have been implemented to accomplish this, of which one is the Advanced Technology Vehicle demonstration programs, which involves testing plug-in hybrid vehicles and fuel cell hybrid vehicles at partner locations. This makes a larger sector of the public aware of these vehicles, while also creating a platform for greater demand. Diversified energy sources are also being created for vehicles, including hydrogen for fuel cells, electricity used in PHVs and battery electric vehicles. Low-carbon biofuels are also being developed. Cooperative Agreements for further research are being negotiated with stakeholders such as government entities, universities, and industry partners. Support for infrastructure development is being developed, so that owners of energy-efficient cars can safely and easily access energy for their vehicles. Thought leadership means that Toyota officials participate in discussions and debates on sustainability and mobility for the future. Some of these occur at events such as Meeting of the minds, Governors' Global Climate Summit, and sustainable mobility seminars.

In terms of benchmarking, the most important of these was implemented in 2001 by former Toyota president Fujio Cho (The Manufacturer, 2010). The Toyota Way was an initiative to help share in the history, spirit and values of the company. The major components of this philosophy are continuous improvement and respect for all people. From this, the Toyota Way was developed to provide benchmarks and standards for each of the components of the company, including Sales and Marketing. The Toyota Way in Sales and Marketing differs from the Toyota Production System, in that the latter was established in Japan and transferred to other countries, whereas the former is developed in each respective country. Part of the Toyota Way benchmark is then also to create a vision and mission for each employee to adhere to. For the Toyota Company collectively, the vision is to become the most successful and respected car company in the world, while the mission for each individual employee is to create lifetime customers and adopt a customer-first approach in his or her work. An important part of this is the fundamental belief that overseas markets should not be controlled by Japan. Instead, each should be allowed its own platform to create a specific Toyota Way that is appropriate to the country in question.

Within the workplace, itself, important components include workplace vitality, invisible competitiveness and an environment that encourages continuous improvement. Invisible competitiveness refers to components of the manufacturing and research process… READ MORE

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