Process Improvement

Write a report that explores an existing process in need of improvement at Toyota at the time of the 2010 accelerator crisis. This process will be at the center of your operations improvement plan (OIP). This assessment should build on the work you did in Assessment 1, looking more closely at key details.

Your report should outline your process improvement idea and include the following elements:

Problem statement: What exactly needs to be improved? Use problem framing and cause-and-effect analysis to develop a brief, preliminary problem statement. Note: You will expand your problem statement in Assessment 3.
Background of the issue: Detail relevant historical data, including how long the problem has been occurring and what it is costing the organization. Note: You are not expected to provide specific data results at this early stage of your investigation.
Impact: What could happen if the problem continues as it is? What could happen if the process is improved? Outline both tangible and intangible pros and cons for improving the issue or ignoring it. Identify some potential general business results and impacts on business relationships.
Desired outcome: How will your new process be different from the old? What competitive advantages will it yield? How will it impact stakeholders? Consider the cost-benefits of the process improvement, estimating how much will it cost the organization and outlining how costs will be offset by the benefits derived.

The work you do for this assessment will inform your work in future assessments. You will also draw on it for the final, comprehensive OIP that you will submit in Assessment 6.

Additional Requirements

Length of assessment: 3–5 typed, double-spaced pages.
APA formatting: Format resources and citations according to APA style and formatting.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Resources:

Toyota Specific Resources

Gerondeau (2015). How Toyota Recovered from a Huge Crisis. What can be learned from it. Retrieved from: https://thethirdroad.com/?p=280
Khan, Riz (2010). The Toyota Crisis. Al Jazeera English. Retrieved from
Toyota Motor Corporation. (n.d.). The origin of the Toyota production system. Retrieved from http://www.toyota-global.com/company/vision_philos…
Trudell, Craig and Yuki Hagiwara (2014). Toyota Recalls More Than 6 Million Vehicles Worldwide. Bloomberg. Retrieved from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-09/…

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Additional Resources for Further Exploration

You may use the following optional resources to further explore the Questions to Consider and assessment topics.

Operations Management

The following resources offer a foundational broad view of operations management.

Deming, W. E. (1987, December). Transformation of today’s management. Executive Excellence, 4(12), 8.
Foster, S. T., Wallin, C., & Ogden, J. (2011). Towards a better understanding of supply chain quality management practices. International Journal of Production Research, 49(8), 2285–2300.

You may want to search this blog for the following terms: automotive recalls, operations improvement, and strategic planning.

Harvard Business Publishing. (n.d.). HBR blog network. Retrieved from https://hbrblogs.wordpress.com/
Russell, R. S., & Taylor, B. W. (2014). Operations and supply chain management (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Available from the bookstore
Value Creation Partners. (n.d.). Analyzing and improving operations. Retrieved from http://www.valuecreationpartners.com/training/anal…
van der Aalst, W. M. P. (2011). Process mining: Discovery, conformance and enhancement of business processes. New York, NY: Springer. Available from the bookstore

Case Studies

The following case studies are recommended for further examination of the topics addressed in this assessment.

You may wish to purchase this resource from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Greto, M., Schotter, A., & Teagarden, M. (2010). Toyota: The accelerator crisis [Case No. A09-10-0011]. Glendale, AZ: Thunderbird School of Global Management.

You may wish to purchase this resource from Harvard Business School Publishing.

Gray, A. E., & Leonard, J. (2009). Process fundamentals [Case No. 969-023]. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.