2010
STUDENT NAME: KAPIL TAK
STUDENT CODE: 10096078
UNIT: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
UNIT CODE: INB 5607
LECTURER: MR. MAINA KIMATO
ASSIGNMENT: HOW TOYOTA BEAT GENERAL MOTORS TO BECOME THE LARGEST AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURE IN THE WORLD AND THE CHALLENGES TOYOTA WILL FACE DUE TO THE ECONOMICAL AND FINANCIAL CRISIS.
WORD COUNT: 2495
Table of Contents 1. TOYOTA HISTORY 3 2. TOYOTA SUCCESS 4 2.1 TOYOTAS CORPORATE CULTURE 4 2.2 TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM 5 2.3 SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP 6 2.4 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE 7 2.5 SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY AND QUALITY 7 2.6 RE-ENGINEERING 8 2.7 STRATEGIES AND CULTURE 8 3. CHALLENGES FOR TOYOTA IN THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRISIS. 10 4. CONCLUSION 10 5.0 REFERENCES 11
1. TOYOTA HISTORY
Toyota Motor Corporation was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937. Kiichiro traveled to the United States where he visited a number of automobile production plants and when he returned to Japan, he produced his first prototype vehicle. General Motors and Ford were already operating their assembly plants in Japan, but this did not stop Toyoda to do what he wanted. (Abilla, 2007)
Toyoda wanted to develop engines that were highly fuel efficient because of the few natural resources Japan had. In the year 1939 the company established a research center to gather findings on battery powered vehicles. The following year they opened Toyoda works which was founded for the production of both machine tools and auto parts. (Abilla, 2007)
Since American Manufactures such as General Motors were concentrating their efforts on medium sized and larger cars, Toyota’s executives thought it was a better idea to deal with small cars to avoid head on confrontation with the big rivals. In 1950 Toyota invested in modern production facilities which increased their efficiency almost immediately. In the year 1980 Toyota was the second larger automobile producer after General Motors. (Abilla, 2007)
Besides being in the car industry,
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