Toyota's Case Study: Toyota Global, 2016)

fields” (Toyota Global, 2016). Toyota should focus on communication, continual improvement, employee involvement in decision-making and innovation, and strategic and systematic approaches to system change and improvement (Rose, 2005). Because technology is constantly advancing and changing, companies in technology heavy industries—like Toyota—must focus on flexible quality control structures to ensure that they maintain their competitive ability over time. Toyota in particular has focused on continual improvement and innovation through employee knowledge maximisation, which has allowed for greater flexibility and expansion. Comparison of Approaches Although Toyota is a Japanese company, and Japanese companies are somewhat notorious for their heavy hierarchical reliance, the implementation of the Creative Idea Suggestion System has built an almost western-style employee valued system in the traditional Japanese company. This integrated system allows employees to be aware of and part of the company’s overarching goals, but it also allows for the maintenance of the traditional, comfortable structures that the company’s employees would be used to from a cultural perspective (Toyota Global, 2016).
This has served the company well, as a strict adherence might stifle creativity and innovation, putting the company behind competitors in terms of product development. However, strict hierarchies—where they do exist—have allowed the company to establish high levels of product quality through quality control and quality assurance partnerships within the production processes of the organisation (Rose, 2005; Toyota Global, 2016).
BENEFITS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN A BUSINESS AND SERVICE