Supply Chain Management Case Study: The Toyota Way

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Toyota is known for revolutionizing management, manufacturing, and production philosophies. Toyota launched “the Toyota Way 2001” which includes 14 management principles to effectively utilize its resources. These 14 principles are divided into 4 broad sections:
Section 1: Long-term philosophy.
Section 2: Right process will produce the right results.
Section 3: Add value to the organization by developing your people
Section 4: Continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning
Toyota Way pushes employees to strive for perfection. In the early years, Toyota was preparing to operate as a truly global company, guided by a common corporate culture—the Toyota Way. The Toyota Way is supported by two main pillars: "Continuous Improvement" …show more content…

As part of TPS, Toyota broke away from the Western supply chain model, which saw car makers sourcing in-house or awarding short term contracts to the lowest-price bidders. Toyota refined supply-chain management by selecting certain suppliers as the exclusive suppliers of particular components. This led to intimate collaboration between Toyota and these long-term partners.
Toyota classified its suppliers according to a three-tier system. Tier one suppliers supplied large, integrated systems to the automakers, followed by tier two suppliers who provided individual and assembled components. The third tier suppliers provided single components for several tier-two suppliers.
Toyota followed Keiretsu business structure which is a networked, industry specific, diversified conglomerate that resulted in the vertical integration of its supply chain. But due its global strategy, the supply chain became dangerously stretched and increased dependency on suppliers outside Japan and the keiretsu structure. Toyota leaned heavily on its single source supply chain approach reaping incredible economies of scale in the

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