Mastering Technology- Operations and Supply chain managment Assignment

Mastering Technology- Operations and Supply chain managment - Assignment Example Best value supply chains are designed to deliver superior services to customers in terms of the five performance objectives-quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost. This paper will discuss Toyota Motor Corporation’s performance in the light of these five performance objectives and assess how the application of modern techniques in operations management can support the organisation’s five performance objectives. A brief overview of the TMC Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), simply termed as Toyota, is a Japan based multinational automaker. The organisation was founded on 28th August 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda. In 2011, Toyota was the world’s third largest automobile manufacture in terms of production and the company employed 300,734 people globally as of 2010. Toyota Motor Corporation is the part of the Toyota Group and has a presence in almost all parts of the globe. Performance objectives of TMC According to Slack et al, quality, speed, dependability, fle xibility, and cost represent a basic set of five performance objectives that can be applied to all operations (Kossmann 2006, p.45). In the following session, Toyota’s performance is discussed in the light of these five performance objectives Quality Quality is the most important performance objective because it is believed to be the major factor influencing the performance of organisations. â€Å"Quality is defined as the totality of features and characteristics of a product, process or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs† (Bart 2006, p.179). It seems that TMC performs outstandingly in terms of product/service quality. From different third-party customer surveys, Toyota’s vehicles are consistently ranked on the top. In addition, Toyota’s different car models have been selected as â€Å"the car of the year† many times by third party market researches and surveys. The company has developed a series of advanced quality features to limit the emission of unpleasant and harmful fumes and to enhance passenger safety. Toyota has improved quality control and quality assurance systems that have been developed over many years (‘Toyota’s approach to quality). The company considers customer satisfaction as the core of its operations and it fosters the involvement of all employees, from ground level to top level, in quality control activities (ibid). Speed Speed or speed of response is another performance objective and is a criterion for evaluating the operational efficiency of an organisation in terms of doing things fast. In other words, speed can be defined as the time period between the order and delivery of products/services (‘process design’). Every firm tries to minimise this time period, and instead increase speed with intent to provide customers with competitive advantages. TMC has developed simple, flexible, and robust technologies to reduce complexity in its operations s o as to fasten overall supply chain activities. It is interesting to note that the Toyota maintains a high output per worker as compared to other leading multinational automakers; and at the beginning of the 21st century, Toyota Burnaston (UK plant) had achieved an