Abstract

Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) is Japan's largest and the world's fourth-largest automobile manufacturer. Toyota has manufacturing facilities in 26 countries and distribution networks in 140 countries and employs 260,000 people worldwide. Toyota offers a wide-range of vehicles such as gas-powered cars, pickups, minivans, and sport utility vehicles (SUV). It offers well-known car models like Camry, Corona, Corolla and Lexus. Though a late entrant, compared to General Motors and Ford, Toyota has become one of the strongest players in the automobile industry. Toyota has also redefined the rules of the game in various areas - product development, manufacturing, vendor management and human resources management. This case discusses the strategies that have made Toyota one of the global leaders in the automobile industry.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

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Keywords

Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota, Sport utility vehicle, SUV, Camry, Corona, Corolla, General Motors, Ford, Vendor management, Global leader, Executive education case study, MBA case study, Sakichi Toyoda, Production systems, Jidoka, Kaizen