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Toyota

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25 views1 page

Toyota

Ghtgf ggjhf fguhg

Uploaded by

veers
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Toyota: A Global Auto Manufacturer

Toyota Motor Corporation is Japan’s top auto manufacturer and has experienced significant growth in global sales
over the past two decades. A key issue facing Toyota is the design of its global production and distribution
network. Part of Toyota’s global strategy is to open factories in every market it serves. Toyota must decide what
the production capability of each of the factories will be, as this has a significant impact on the desired distribution
system. At one extreme, each plant can be equipped only for local production. At the other extreme, each plant is
capable of supplying every market. Before 1996, Toyota used specialized local factories for each market. After
the Asian financial crisis in 1996–97, Toyota redesigned its plants so it could also export to
markets that remain strong when the local market weakens.

Toyota calls this strategy “global complementation.”


Whether to be global or local is also an issue for Toyota’s parts plants and product design. Should parts plants be
built for local production or should there be a few parts plants globally that supply multiple assembly plants?
Toyota has worked hard to increase commonality in parts used around the globe. Although this has helped the
company lower costs and improve parts availability, common parts caused significant difficulty when one of the
parts had to be recalled. In 2009, Toyota had to recall about 12 million cars using common parts across North
America, Europe, and Asia, causing significant damage to the brand as well as to the finances.

Any global manufacturer like Toyota must address the following questions regarding the
configuration and capability of the supply chain:
1. Where should the plants be located, and what degree of flexibility should be built into
each? What capacity should each plant have?
2. Should plants be able to produce for all markets or only for specific contingency markets?
3. How should markets be allocated to plants and how frequently should this allocation be
revised?
4. How should the investment in flexibility be valued?

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