Toyota Case Study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Toyota Case Study - Assignment ExampleThis may be seen as iodine of the key models for Toyota to consider in recognising the need for change, present the case study points to an organisation which is relatively closed, the company losing touch with its customer base and management team focusing upon internal interactions and change initiatives. Adoption of the expand systems model for viewing an organisation may part with the company to concentrate to a greater extent upon the needs of its customers, rather than focusing upon internally straining systems issues. 2.0 Recommendations for Change Having analysed the case study and conducted the relevant situational analysis, it would appear that Toyota suffers from a number of major issues. The single two biggest issues which the company may be seen as confront are poor internal communications and a disconnect between the company and its customers in the market. Such issues have lead to poor product tone of voice in recent years a nd the failure to develop new products which have a clear demand in some local markets. In considering how Toyota is to switch these problems, the report recommends a program of radical hard systems restructuring. Here Toyota should consider adopting a regionally based product line model and feed away from the on-line(prenominal) centralised model operated from Japan. The benefits of implementing such a change initiative would be that Toyota would be closer to its customers both geographically and from a communications perspective (Griffin and Pustay 2009). This would allow the company to develop products which are suited to localised needs, rather than developing a set of international products which are designed to appeal to a orbiculate market. In addition, Toyota would also be able to detect any problems within a local market in a much shorter space of time, than where communications as at present have to filter stake to the head office in Japan. As such, the recommendatio n of this report is that Toyota should set up one head office function in each key national market, each to be run as a separate strategic business unit. In making the changes, the researcher recommends that Lewins (1957) three grade model of change should be used. Here the model advocates three stages, namely unfreeze move and Freeze. In short, the unfreeze stage represents a preparatory stage in which members of the organisation are encouraged to both see the need for change and and then move towards the planning required at the implementation stage. The move stage represents the actual implementation stage of a change initiative, finally the freeze stage represents a consolidation stage in which managers ensure changes to processes and practises are embedded in the organisation and old ways of working are not slipped back into. While Lewins (1957) three stages of change is a widely accepted model, it is not the only model which Toyota may consider. Another similar model is that of Kotters (1996) eight stage model for creating change which includes Establishing a sense of urgency Creating a guiding coalition Developing a vision and strategy communication the change vision Empowering employees for broad based action Generating short term wins Consolidating gains Anchoring new approaches