Planning And Decision Making Essay Example for Free

Planning And Decision Making Essay Many organizations lack a better planning and decision making systems that usually leads to the failure of there operations, in this case planning refers to the overall integrated planning system within an organization which incorporates both strategic and corporate planning. An organization is a consciously coordinated social unit composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Therefore corporate planning can only be achieved through management functions; planning, which encompasses defining organization goals establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals and developing a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities, organizing, which is the determination of what tasks have to be done, who does them how the tasks are to be grouped? Who reports to whom and where decisions are to be made. Controlling, this involves monitoring the organizations performance, leading, which involves managers motivating subordinates, directing the activities to be done, selecting the most appropriate channels of communication and resolving any conflicts among the employees Taking a look at Toyota Industries Corporation that was started in the year 1937 by Kiichirro Toyoda. It started off by manufacturing and selling automatic looms. Later on it extended by manufacturing automobiles including vehicles, car air conditioning compressors and engines. Toyota Company is widely known all over the world as an automobile manufacturer. It proudly owns the title of the world’s largest automaker company. It is known to be the largest then followed by General Motors Company. This company made sales worth 4. 72 million in the first half of the year 2007. It actually made a profit of $ 15. 09 billion. This paper is dealing with an evaluation of the success that this Company is having. This company is known to have production bases in Asia, Europe, Japan, India, China and North America. Toyoda, 2005) Orientation This company is reported to have a better management system that is referred to as the Toyota Production System which is made up of practices that are meant to organize the company’s logistics and its production; it is also found to encouraging a better communication between the company and its clients. Evaluation of Toyota Company shows tremendous success in the year 2007. This has actually ended the reign of the world best selling trademark of General Motors. An evaluation of the success of Toyota Company shows that it has really expanded various markets worldwide. This has enabled it to reach a very wide scope of customers. Evaluation on the success of Toyota Company shows that it has really opened up so many outlets all over the world including Africa. This has helped customers to easily access Toyota products unlike before. That is why this Company is really enjoying the booming success. (Dr. Shoichiro 2006) Planning is very important in any organization. This is because it helps the organization to easily replace personnel who get promotions or those who get transfers. This is because organizations nowadays carry out management development on all the leaders and managers in an organization. This helps an organization to have a pool of qualified personnel. It also helps an organization to carry out technological advancement. This is because the organization’s personnel are qualified and quite updated in the current technology. (www. onesixsigma. com) Key Processes  The system was founded between the years 1948 and the year 1975 which at the moment referred to as â€Å"Just in Time production† it was regarded as a house like design through which most of its workers once they are recruited they first of all get trained first before they start working in the company this actually shows how committed Toyota is in implementing a good performance oriented workforce, in this case we find that after an employee is trained and found to be successful then he is promoted with an ambition of meeting the expected company standards that are set. From the Toyota Production we find that the Managers can use this to identify the training goals. A manager needs to review his employee’s skills and the areas that they need to improve. These needs in the managerial skills will help in making goals. To find out this, the manager needs to asses the workforce and through this he can know what they are able to do and what they can’t do. Therefore the manager cannot just do this by himself. He needs assistance from other people. They can assist in reviewing his performance. Such people include the supervisors. These people can give invaluable information on the areas that need to be improved and give insight on the behaviors exhibited at work. During the planning the manager needs to consider the training programs that are being offered. The manager needs to carry out plan implementation. After that the manager needs to evaluate himself if he achieved his goals. The TPS also ensures that there is a minimal wastage of resources in the company, since the company regards wastage of resources as a result of de-motivation to its employees. Any organization that carries out management development usually experiences an increase in its productivity. When the personnel in an organization get skills in management there will be an increase in production. (www. onesixsigma. com) The founders of the Toyota production system had an ambition of eliminating the burdens which was referred to as the â€Å"muri†, also to curb the inconsistency referred to as the â€Å"mura† and the other reason for establishing the system is avoid wastage which was referred to as â€Å"muda† therefore we find that the company using the system has therefore discovered on how to reduce factors leading to wastage in the production of the firm. (www. onesixsigma. com) This has led to a better decision making in the firm whereby the system defines that better results are always founded on the right process of production whereby the companies are always urged to come up with a continuous flow of communication in order to indicate the threats of the company, we also find that the company encourages the use of the pull system which is directed towards the avoidance of overproduction, the other way that will enable a company to achieve its goals is to have a levelised workload whereby the employees are allowed to work at a lower speed in order to have better production results rather than working with a high speed to give poor results. In figure one, we find that the diagram has indicated that the company operates in two ways the Jidoka and the Just on Time processes whose goal is to enable a high quality production at a lower cost and within the shortest time limit. Here we find the company actually deals with the reduction of the cost of its products and also on the improvement of the quality of its products. Research indicates that Toyota is in a position of producing one vehicle in every six seconds which results into a total of six million vehicles per year, we also find that the company does not employ people who are given the responsibility but the members themselves report to be disciplined in a manner that they always clean their own offices, this policy has been found to be successful in ensuring that the workers report to their working areas with aim of improving their productivity. Key Learnings Management development is very beneficial to organizations. Many organizations that have embraced this usually have efficient and effective personnel. This improves the productivity hence leading to financial gains. The managers are skilled and will deal with issues that can cause losses efficiently. Figure two below indicating the ways Toyota puts together it production process, the company is reported to be successful as a result of encouraging its employees to work together as a team Whereby in terms of staffing, we find that the Toyota company actually employs more than 4,000 workers each day who are always provided with a number of two working shifts, in this company we find that the employees work in terms of teams, under which each team is made of a minimum of four to six employees, research also indicates that eight teams in the company make a whole group which is therefore provided with a team leader. Under the management in the organization we find that the company improves the performance of their workers through a better paying system which research indicates that every member in the team is paid at least ? 7,000 including this is inclusive of shift and overtime premium, they are also provided with a private healthcare. (www. onesixsigma. com) Where also find that there exist the policies of continuous improvement which is the company terms it as Kaizen action meetings which are regarded as circles of quality whereby the member staffs are involved in the improvement of the performance of the employees. This is well encouraged where the company is found to be offering Kaizen prizes after every six months. in the meetings a manager managing a team of twenty five groups is given an opportunity of deciding which group manager is the best after which all the managers in the company decides which group manager is the best to win the presentation. Then the two of the managers are given a chance to travel to Japan for a kaizen conference and give the story about their performance. For all these reasons we find that this Kaizen is used a way of improving the employees performance in the Toyota company and therefore the other companies planning to be as successful as Toyota one needs to implement the same policy in his or her organization. (www. onesixsigma. com) When evaluating the success in this Company, one can’t fail to notice the improved marketing strategies that have been incorporated therein. The company carried out outsourcing of experts who carried out market research on the target customers of this nation. The Company was therefore in a position to strategize so that it could overthrow the previous automobile manufacturer-General Motors. Marketing strategies were put in place to target the affluent customers all over the world. This played a big role in the success of Toyota Company. These marketing strategies included participating in sports. Toyota Company vehicles were used in motor spots and this actually marketed the vehicles. The Super 2000 Corolla and Peugeot were won in motors spots that were carried out late in the year 2007. (Toyoda, 2005) Toyota Company has had various acquisitions which influenced its success. It acquired 8. 7% of Fuji Industries. This Company is the manufacturer of Subaru vehicles. Toyota Company also acquired 5. 9% of Isuzu Motors. These strategies highly influenced the success of Toyota Company in the year 2007. This made Toyota Company to overtake General Motors. Toyota Company really strategized and incorporated new technologies in its manufacturing system. These technologies include an advanced parking guidance system and automatic power buttons. This resulted in the manufacture of hybrid gas-electric vehicle. This was produced in very large numbers. This hybrid gas-electric vehicle is sold at one million all over the world. This played a big role in the entire success of Toyota Company. (Dr. Shoichiro 2006) Evaluation of the success of Toyota Company shows that one of the factors that influenced its overall success in the year 2007 is branding. This company manufactures a wide variety of brands. This gives customers a wide variety of vehicles to choose from this Company. These brands include Lexus GS, Toyota Camry, Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Tundra, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prius etc. This has also played a big role in the success of Toyota Company. Surveys carried out on Toyota Company products show a great improvement on the quality of its products. This influenced the general success of this Company until it overtook the previous world leader- General Motors Company. It brands are actually preferred by customers because of quality and durability. Toyota produced Lexus and Scion automobiles which ranked top in reliability and quality surveys. They also ranked best according to various consumer reports. According to the annual report of Toyota Company 2007, there was much incorporation of team work which greatly influenced the success of Toyota Company. This Company has a large market share in United States and Asia. (Wooly, 2006) Conclusion According to the annual report in Toyota Company, approximately 4. 72 million vehicles were sold by the first half of the year 2007. This ended seventy six year reign of General Motors Company. Evaluation of the success of Toyota Company’s success in the year 2007 shows that this company incorporated various strategies that played a big role in its success. These included outsourcing of experts, incorporation of new marketing strategies and opening up of very many outlets all over the world. Branding aspect in this Company was well used by the marketing experts and this is how Toyota Company managed to overthrow the previous world leading manufacturer – General Motors Company. The market share for Toyota Company in United States of America is enviable. This Company currently has the challenge of maintaining its leadership role in the automobile industry.