Introduction:
The purpose of this report is to define a lean assessment technique referred to as rapid plant assessment (RPA). The RPA process describes the operations of Toyota Motor Company and indicates if the company adheres to the principles of lean production; that is operating from the client perspective who ultimately utilizes the product. The process entails filling the RPA rating sheet and the RPA questionnaire. The report utilizes the data acquired to highlight the competitive edge resulting from an elaborate customer relationship that translates to optimized automobile sales.
Poor 1; Below average 3; Average 5; Above Average 7; Excellent 9; Best in Class 11.
Part 2: The RPA Questionnaire:
1. Are visitors welcomed and given information about the plant layout, workforce, customers, and products? Yes
2. Are ratings for customer satisfaction and product quality displayed? Yes
3. Is the facility safe, clean, orderly, and well lit? Is the air quality good, and are noise levels low? Yes
4. Does a visual labeling system identify and locate inventory, tools, processes, and flow? Yes
5. Does everything have its own place, and is everything stored in its place? Yes
6. Are up-to-date operational goals and performance measures for those goals prominently posted? No
7. Are production materials brought to and stored at line side rather than in separate inventory storage areas? No
8. Are work instructions and product quality specifications visible at all work areas? No
9. Are updated charts on productivity, quality, safety, and problem solving visible for all teams? Yes
10. Can the current state of the operation be viewed from a central control room, on a status board, or on a computer display? Yes
11. Are production lines scheduled off a single pacing process, with appropriate inventory levels at each stage? Yes
12. Is material moved only once and as short a distance as possible? Is material moved efficiently in appropriate containers? Yes
13. Is the plant laid out in continuous product line flows rather than in "shops"? Yes
14. Are work teams trained, empowered, and involved in problem solving and ongoing improvements? Yes
15. Do employees appear committed to continuous improvement? Yes
16. Is a timetable posted for equipment preventive maintenance and ongoing improvement of tools and processes? No
17. Is there an effective project-management process, with cost and timing goals, for new product start-ups? Yes
18. Is a supplier certification process - with measures for quality, delivery, and cost performance - displayed? Yes
19. Have key product characteristics been identified, and are fail-safe methods used to forestall propagation of defects? Yes
20. Would you buy the products this operation produces? Yes
Customer relationships:
The Toyota Motor Company has weaved a unique relationship with its employees, dealers, suppliers and customers that has accordingly boosted its automobile sales on a global scale. In this light, the company has been accorded excellence in its customer relationships, which earns it rating 9. Mr. Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese businessperson, instituted the powerful link of stakeholders. Despite his efforts in designing efficient production systems such as the lean manufacturing processes, Mr. Taiichi acknowledges the indispensable role from customers, which cannot be separated from industrial production (Liker 23).
Taiichi Ohno espoused that an active stakeholder relationship is prime to the success of the automotive industry. Consequently, his efforts were focused on consumer protection and satisfaction. Protection was considered in the aspect of producing quality products. In addition, addressing all sorts of concern on a timely basis have been the tenets of Toyota Motor Company (Liker 27).
Clientele stratification:
The Toyota dealership and clientele network comprises of five channels, namely: Toyota, Toyopet, Auto, Vista, and Corolla. Each of these channels distributes a portion of the Toyota products. For instance, one channel might be apportioned to sell expensive vehicles, while another may sell sportier ones, and so forth. The strategy enhances Toyota to identify its target customers and thus customize the product to suit the needs of the relevant customer segment (Liker 41).
Each channel is directly connected to the product development processes and in turn linked to the customers. Toyota owns and runs its distribution channels unlike the American and European dealerships that are run by intermediaries. The company conducts ground research from its customers’ base and integrates the new data in the production processes. The dealerships focus on the client preferences and tastes, the engineers, customize the vehicle models to suit such tastes.
The Toyota salesperson acquires tremendous knowledge on all design attributes of the automobiles made. This aspect contrast the Western salespeople who are mainly professional negotiators with scanty engineering knowledge relating the products. Through a comprehensive understanding of the product, back to front, the attribute creates a competitive edge in defining the performance of the vehicle and thus realistically persuade the client to test on the auto (Liker 47).
The Toyota Company salespeople are set to the various dealerships in teams of seven or eight individuals. Their primary focus is to assess and attend to customer problems while the dealerships maintain open communication avenues with the manufactures, persistently exchanging this information such as clientele concerns with the production plants.
The customer feedback that is captured by the dealerships is inexistent among the western dealerships, who focus on increasing sales. In case the salespeople identify problems among clients, a cause of action is proposed, for example, recalling of vehicles. The platform has proven critical in establishing the need for improvements on quality and performance of vehicles (Liker 54).
Unique selling strategy:
Outside the dealerships, Toyota salespeople conduct the sales from door-to-door. The sellers come into direct contact with the families and individuals who form their customer base. The salespeople acquire valuable data, such as occupation, age of parents and children, the number of other vehicles, and their age, the availability of parking space, and so forth. This data becomes essential in defining the market trends and factors that influence the marketing preferences. As a result, this close relationship enhances customer follow-ups, problem solving and successively optimizes sales. Resultantly, the mode of operation has been deemed most useful (Liker 57).
Through the door-to-door strategy, the salespeople acquires data on vehicle preferences and later utilize this knowledge in suggesting the most appropriate products to other customers. Such suggestions include colors of choice, models and designs, price range, and other important options such as comfort ratings. This information is subsequently utilized in guiding the production processes; with the focus of meeting this subscribe demand. In addition, the door-to-door approach is imperative in retaining repeat customers (Liker 65).
The Toyota sales force maintains direct communication with the factories, relaying the collated information to the manufactures. At any one time, the company understands the concerns, demands, and preferences from its customer base. As a result, Toyota maximizes its sales more than any other automobile company does. For the Western manufactures, predicting demand and preferences is often wrong. Consequently, the vehicles remain on the dealer parlors for a long time since they have undesirable color, model, and other options.
Prospective improvements:
The automotive industry is increasingly becoming competitive with more companies making entries as well as engaging in franchises. Therefore, the aspect of improving the corporate image and brand is critical to customer retention and optimizing sales. With the internet as the current marketing tool, Toyota Company should integrate its website and social media platforms to its showrooms. All internet leads ought to be directly linked to the showroom, such that any click to a link enhances the potential customer to review the various products and relevant information, for example, price range (Parment Web).
It is important that the Toyota Company has discerned that technology and tools do not market vehicles, but people do. However, the company can maximize the coverage of its clients across extensive spatial scales and in varying temporal contexts through technology. As Parment espouses, through online contact centers, where customer representatives can attend to customers’ requests and concerns, the strategy would optimize sales and revenues. Moreover, by tracking and monitoring performance results is the only sure way to hold the salespeople accountable and ensuring that they implement the defined processes, and utilizing the tools invested in towards solid clientele rapport.
Works cited:
James, Martin, R. Management of Performance: Rapid Plant Assessment Rating Sheet. University of South Florida, 2002. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. http://maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumGoodson2002.htm
Liker, Jeffrey K. The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print.
Parment, Anders. Auto Brand: Building Successful Car Brands for the Future. , 2014. Internet resource.
