According to the SWOT analysis That we learn in chapter 6,
the internal strength is Toyota's reputation, it is the world's
leading automaker and most valuable auto brand; this could help
to keep Toyota in the business in the future.
I believe that the vulnerability that needs to be addressed the
most is the higher quality of the parts that are prompting
recalls. Before releasing it on the market, Toyota should conduct
more study and tests.
Toyota is well-positioned to take advantage of all current
external prospects since it has a track record of conducting
research for the company's and employees' benefit.
Keeping up with the competency of automakers who are producing
innovations faster than Toyota is one of the external challenges
that Toyota should prioritize. The competency is focusing on
manufacturing electric cars thanks to technology; People want to
save money on gas, especially now that it is so costly, thus
electric cars are becoming more popular as a result of technical
improvements. Another reason people are choosing this automobile is
to protect the environment. Well one they could do some research
& make use of all the recalls they've had in the past and
make a vehicle or vehicles that has all of the updated safety
features and airbags of the past models that were fixed and no
longer needed services.An internal weakness i think would be the
recalls and the fact that they aren't coming together to catch
up with the other companies and their later models. What gets
most people is that Toyota has been around for a long time
and has always been labeled or programmed to be the safest
vehicles, i think they just last longer and that they're good
with repairing their cars when they find mistakes (recalls) not all
makes aren't a problem. One of the biggest internal strengths for
Toyota is their dependability. Well it’s a great strength there is
always room for improvement. Even though we consider them a
dependable vehicle they’re always drawbacks. For example, even
though they are dependable but they often have a lot of recalls
and people see that and are worried to purchase that. If they
were to take this internal weakness and do some more research
by providing more facilities and employees to help along the
ways they could potentially be one of the best car markets out
there. I have never personally owned a Toyota I have frozen
a few here and there but I don’t know much about them all
I know is what I see and usually when you see things about
vehicles it’s the negatives.After reading this article and learning
about Toyota as a business I have now researched and found
a few different vehicles that I would be interested in purchasing.
I’ve been looking at different ones over the past couple of
weeks and I think I’m liking Toyota. The strategy process depends
on understanding the most important social influences, regulations,
technology, and political decisions. Environmental scanning is important
because the business environment changes rapidly. Today's item of
interest may become tomorrow's critical issue. If organizations do
not scan the environment, they may be surprised by competitors.
Although an organization cannot change the external environment,
changes can be made internally to better react to external changes.
Toyota has always had a reputation for dependability. They should
push forward that internal strength along with safety feature
improvements to catch the eyes of the middle class that grasps
towards SUVs, as they are targeting. While Toyota isn’t doing
well in the sales department, they are in an opportunistic position
to move forward with the future, considering how many hybrid
vehicles they currently have in their lineup. As for external
threats, fluctuation in currency has always been around and car
companies can cater to this. However, I think their major problem
lies amongst the tariffs in New Mexico and price issues within
North America. They could try to offer a more sizable rebate
with new vehicles and deals on used vehicles. Many families
need vehicles but can't afford them right now due to inflation.
Toyota has always been a company of innovation and eliminating
waste. After reading the article, I believe that Toyota should
focus more on the research and development part of the company.
The weaknesses that were highlighted include multiple airbag recalls
that could be avoided if more research and development went
into their manufacturing. There is a lot of opportunity in developing
autonomous vehicles and many other companies have already started
working on that including companies like google. Toyota needs to
address their weaknesses before they take advantage of its
opportunities. They lost $1.2 billion dollars in lawsuits and have
had six million issues with airbags so before they diversify they
need to fix what is within. As far as threats, Toyota should
address the threats from competitors. Now that their competitors
have caught up in on quality and safety Toyota needs to be
innovative. They have to tackle the problem of production delay
in Japan due to weather. Production and different currencies are
threats but the delays in production have allowed their competitors
to catch up to what they thought was innovation. After reading
the “SWOT Analysis: How Would You Analyze Toyota?” article,
I think Toyota's internal strengths are their research and advance
technology they have. They have more than one car that was
ranked in the most dependable category. They wanted a safe and
reliable car, and that is what they are creating. I think their
weaknesses are all the recalls they have had to do. Toyota is
pushing that they are safe and reliable, but are recalling for
airbag issues which is a big safety issue. Especially families, they
are looking at a car that is safe for their families, and when
you are seeing multiple recalls dealing with safety issues and
airbags, that is going to make many people hesitate buying a
Toyota. I think Toyota will take advantage of the current external
opportunities especially with the Hybrid cars now being made and
sold. With Toyota's technology I can see them going far when
it comes to Hybrid. With other companies that also are making
Hybrid cars I can see that being an external threat for Toyota,
but nothing that isn't happening now. With the cost always
changing, administration changing, natural disasters and covid, it can
make all kinds of trouble for Toyota to get parts it needs,
assemble cars, and what not. It may be a hard year or even
few years, but in the end I think Toyota will figure it out.
The internal strengths of Toyota are it has strong brand image,
good production and it has advanced technology and global supply
chain. Here Toyota can make flying cars and smart cars and
can implement a very high tech chain of cars. In total, 15
research facilities in 8 different countries, including Japan, United
States, China, Thailand, Australia, Germany, France and Belgium to
give them access to many ideas across the globe. Some weakness
they could be recalls on the vehicles at hand because no
vehicle is perfect and malfunctions happen all the time. As far
future-tech goes, Toyota is playing catch up to Tesla who is
already years in advance when it comes to the smart car.
Toyota follows a rigid hierarchy where the orders flow in one
direction from top to bottom. It takes away the creativity part
and has a solid structure and less room for creativity. Threats
could be another pandemic with Japan being one of the larger
partners them closing down again would slow down productions.
Also just other companies being so ahead in the hyrbrid and
electrical cars such as tesla and Volkswagon already many years
in advance. I would like to start this off first by saying I
really like Toyota and the vehicles they produce. The internal
strengths that Toyota could make better use of in the future is
there R&D facilities. They are the second highest budget with
10billion dollars. I feel like they can expand this and strengthen
their knowledge by adding more across the world. I feel like
if they would have done this earlier it might would've helped
with the whole recall situation. I think the internal weakness that
is most important to address is how they had accelerators stick
a while ago. They have definitely fixed that issue as it was
a big problem in 2000, if they hadn't I'm sure they wouldn't
be in business anymore. Another thing that was mentioned they
had recalls on was their airbags not working, which they aren't
alone on. We have seen that with many different car companies
all over the world. I definitely think Toyota can take advantage
of everything considering they have one of the most budgets for
R&D which is a big thing when it comes to electric cars
etc. I feel like the biggest external threat they should worry
about is how far other companies are with their electric/self-driving
cars. I think that might be in the near future with how
expensive gas is everywhere. I personally love and own Toyota
vehicles. The internal strengths I feel Toyota could make better
use of in the future are its many research and development
facilities, especially those whose focus is on passenger safety and
the reliability of those darn airbags. As they are a leader in
the market in both Japan and North America, perhaps they should
also focus on the reason they aren't leading in China where
the market is much larger.Their internal weaknesses are mostly in
relation to their recalls. Again, focusing on those safety features
and developing a relationship with a different airbag supplier may
be necessary. I do believe that Toyota will be able to step
up to the innovative plate with these new autonomous vehicles,
especially given that they came out so strong with the Prius,
being the first of its kind. That being said, it's only natural
that their external threats would come from their competition. A
sort of race to the finish. The internal strengths that Toyota
could make better use of in the future are its Toyota Production
System and their R&D facilities. The Toyota Production System is
the company's focus on quality and reliability. Being a top market
in North America, Toyota should carry out plenty of meticulous
checks to ensure safety and performance. Doing this provides
dependability to Toyota's customers and builds trust with their
company.Toyota has 17 R&D (research and development) facilities in
eight countries and a research budget of almost $10 billion. That's
more than enough resources for thorough information. The technology
and product development can ensure that Toyota make high-quality,
appealing vehicles. The article states that the Toyota Prius is the
company's best-selling hybrid car. The Prius is efficient in gas
and has lower amounts of carbon dioxide in the air.With the
innovation of the Prius, Toyota is situated to take advantage of
its current external opportunities. Other companies will take advantage
of making hybrid vehicles. An advantage of a hybrid vehicle is
the gasoline engine used. The engine is usually small, light, and
highly efficient. Toyota should prioritize the threat from competitors
with the demand increase for hybrid cars. From what I read
they have many strengths one that stuck out to me is their
improvement of the company, meaning they are always looking for
new ways to improve their product lines or their products in
general. What they can improve on is their safety measurements
.One of the major ones they reported or wrote on was their
pieces/products/parts being recalled. I do see this a lot with other
car companies as well. sometimes during manufacturing, they mess
up and something eventually needs recalled such as an air bag
or a seat. They absolutely do but they will also have the
competition from other car companies that are also improving. such
as the hybrid cars that are mentioned. Those are the "future"
cars so it makes sense that their competition would be other
car companies improving as well.
Internal branding is at a high level. The other area of production,
with safety focus needs to be revamped to catch up with the
past quality they have provided. The internal weakness is the fast
amount of growth, with reduced focus of quality. There needs to
be a revamp of the quality control for the company. Break
into multiple divisions to quadruple check plans for parts and
production. Toyota has the brand name and size. But to take
advantage of all opportunities, no. Due to the distractions and
push to produce more, more quickly. There will be mistakes
continued to be made. Reducing the actual success of growing
the right way.
Toyota is situated to take advantage of opportunities, but due to
the lack of importance put on quality of the equipment being
put in/on vehicles, there will be continued issues. Ie recalls,
negative communication in social media, etc. External threats are
the other companies, competitors. In this type of business, vehicle
companies are trying to be the leading company to develop and
mass produce for consumers. Even though Toyota spends billions
of dollars on research and development, I think they should make
better use of this in the future. This research and development
budget could be divided to invest more into quality control that
could help with the issues that they have with some of the
vehicles. Toyota needs to focus more on quality in their products
to help eliminate or minimize the amount of problems in the
vehicles that ultimately cost the company billions of dollars. As
it states in chapter 6, “President Akio Toyoda concluded that
these problems were partly due to the company’s ‘excessive focus
on market share and profits’ requiring that the company reorient
its strategy toward quality and innovation” . I think that the
strategic control could be better and make better use of the
feedback loop that can be used to rethink the goals of the
company. I think that the company needs to develop a better
sustainable competitive advantage to keep up with the innovation
of other competitors. The shortage of resources and issues that
arise from environmental threats such as earthquakes and flooding
should be addressed before they happen. There needs to be a
plan in place for what to do when these unfortunate events
happen and how to handle the situation. The internal strengths
that Toyota could make better use of in the future would be
to just continue improving their vehicles. Toyota has always been
very popular car and people seem to always have great things
to say about Toyotas especially being known for vehicles that
"last long". The internal weaknesses I feel are most insoortant to
address are recalls because they must be addressed as soon as
possible. Another internal weakness I would say is strike because
it can hinder the company from meeting market demands when
they are suppose to. Toyota learn from their weaknesses and it
makes them stronger. Toyota is situated to take advantage of all
its current external opportunities because they are a well know
company and known for great qualities which is advantage compared
to another company who is not known for the same quality of
vehicles. I think the external threat that Toyota should prioritize
would be their competition which is Tesla. They should focus on
how and what they can do to come out on top and become
most valued. I believe that one of the best strengths that Toyota
has is that it is a well-known brand of vehicles that is
known to outlast the competitors and be much more dependable.
However, that being said is also one of the highest vehicles
to purchase but we have all heard the saying of you get
what you pay for. The weaknesses listed in this example is
something that could happen to any manufacturer of vehicles I
would think that mistakes were made, and the management went
with the lowest bidder that was not the best product and caused
these problems. As far as external opportunities I really think
that Toyota has the ability to take advantage I just am not
sure if they have the time to produce some of these newer
products fast enough to be competitive in the market. In America
Toyota will always have to compete against the GM who makes
the Chevy Silverado, and it will always be an uphill battle but
in certain regions of the US such as larger cities they will
also have a problem competing against brands like Tesla when
charging stations are easy to locate. The internal strengths of
Toyota that make it a better use in the future I believe is
that Toyota has been at the forefront of technology of vehicle
production and has been the leading seller of automobile for a
long time due to their innovated vision of vehicle improvements
over the years that has been trusted all over the world for
their liability as being a strong vehicle company that make
excellent long lasting dependable vehicle, which has made it a
strong brand company that has an excellent production and the
leader in the advanced technology and global supply chain of
motor vehicle. Toyota is phenomenally successful and continues to
improve on the advancement technology over its competitors for
years to come and due to reckoning its strength and weakness
in the automotive industry.I would summarize the one internal
weaknesses that I feel are most important to address is Toyota
trying to stay ahead of its competitors and for a time would
look at quantity instead of quality and the faults of this lead
to recalls on the quality of their vehicle and with such things
that was in the news, or the things everyone is aware of
these recalls, such as the faulty airbags and fuel pumps, which
costs lives and millions of dollars for the company and trust
in buying a vehicle due to this bad publicity. I believe that
with all these issues, Toyota has fallen behind other companies
as the leader in automaker, but with Toyota continuing to learn
from its automotive technology faults and continues to edge back
to its number one spot in the automotive business is a testament
of its fortitude. Analyzation of whether Toyota is situated to take
advantage of all its current external opportunities is that Toyota
has always been at the forefront of research and development of
automotive vehicle with its innovative technology and continues to
be the leader in advance of new safety and fuel efficiency
vehicles for years to come. I believe that the external threats
Toyota should prioritize and that could stop Toyota’s overall
dominance progression that threatens the company would be due to
for one the everlasting Covid threat that has weakened the import
and export of goods, the inflation in Japan and other countries
economy. I believe the one main threat would be the increasing
technology advancement of other countries that is giving Toyota
realistic competition and that Toyota must fix it flaws and
continue to adapt and stay above its competitors in the advancement
of technology of the automotive industry. organizations must also
monitor trends. As we are discussing, a big piece of strategy
development is analyzing internal Strengths and Weaknesses. It also
involves understanding external Opportunities and Threats. Of course,
the acronym SWOT describes this process. Occasionally, businesses
can be surprised by a new technology or trend. Yet, trends
can be identified early if the organization is properly scanning,
This is why it is smart to consider "SWOT-T" which includes
Trends. Toyota has the potential to increase productivity and promote
innovation by emphasizing respect for its staff and customers. They
were also the pioneers of lean management. The idea of zero-
emission vehicles is being pursued by car companies using two
key technologies: hydrogen fuel cells and electric vehicles. Toyota
holds around 5,680 global patents on hydrogen fuel cells.
Weaknesses are decisions that slow down growth. Toyota has an
issue with Although Toyota sets the standards for quality control,
its design and production aren’t flawless. For instance, early this
year Toyota recalled 700,000 vehicles because of a faulty fuel
pump. Additionally, its global presence leaves a lot to be desired.
All in all, Toyota has the potential to stand up to giants
such as Tesla with their hybrid cars if given the chance and
with the correct business skills. Toyota can make better use of
improvement amongst the assembly line. They could find out the
strengths within each employee that play a major role within.
Continuing to work on the values of what set them aside from
other companies can prevent simple damages that may have a
great impact on their progress or goals each year. Although
Toyota has a great representation on not hiding the cause of
different outcomes such as recalls there's still always more
improvement to be made.
I find it very important for Toyota to stabilize the prevention
of Toyota's accelerators from sticking. The ultimate goal is to
gain great value to its revenue. Having a find over a billion
dollars bring great concerns. This will be very important to place
on the forefront of addressing what could be hurting the company.
There's a lot of competition but toyota have a high rank in
sales for Hybrid cars. Which could become a great advantage
within its current external opportunities. I also think Toyota need
to address what could be hurting the company in Japan find
out areas that wouldn't cause damage to the company or just
consider relocating to prevent loss.
I think competition may be the least of Toyota's concerns.
Maintaining high productivity and profitability while complying with
tight quality control requirements might put management in conflict
with labor. Workers at a Toyota manufacturing factory in India
recently went on strike over labor issues. Such problems make it
difficult for the organization to meet market needs. Companies that
specialize in manufacturing seem to focus on quantity over quality
sadly.
I think another issue they are having other than the countless
recalls and she safety issues ay be due to the actual market
itself. Due to finances, many people just aren't going out and
buying vehicles right now. Unless they are willing to give a
major tax break, it won't work.Their name alone takes them far
in the industry, due to their background. It is important to
keep trying new things in the environment/business. Also, the
weakness from promoting and selling products that might not be
ready is a flaw. Costing a company a large amount of money,
and media issues. It would be helpful if they slowed down to
really test each piece of equipment being on a vehicle they
are producing. It seems like it comes down to pushing, speed
of releasing new products to the industry. Important to take time
and make sure it is tested, and the right product for
customers.they should focus on emphasizing respect for their employees.
A company doesn’t work without all of the employees. If you
treat your employees poorly they give you poor work. I don’t
think a lot of companies really have The grasp on this concept.
Looking at big corporations across America and even around the
world a lot of them see their employees as a number instead
of us humans. Toyota is a firm that produces excellent, long-
lasting, dependable vehicles. My family had a Toyota automobile
that was passed down five times between my siblings and me.
Even though it was old, it worked well for many years, but
now that new technology is being integrated into automobiles, the
corporation faces more challenges. Most automakers have adopted
quality programs into their manufacturing. As you may be aware,
Six Sigma is one of the more popular quality programs. A
friend of mine attained the level of "black belt." Six Sigma trainers
progress through a series of levels similar to martial arts. The
highest level of Six Sigma training is the black belt which involves
attending classes, practical application of the quality program, and
designing a change program project for an organization. My friend
once told me that the Total Quality Management (TQM) process
shows an organization what must be changed to gain efficiencies,
but the Six Sigma program provides the method to make the
needed changes. Of course, as a Six Sigma practitioner he is a
biased source. The size of the company, and market share tends
to reduce the value of the parts that are applied to a vehicle.
In a way, companies can become sloppy or not as focused on
the quality of the parts. Just getting products in consumers hands.
This can become an issue, long term. The value of a brand
can become less, consumers may purchase less, and the brand
name can become tarnished. Important for big companies to step
back and remember why they started. To me an airbag is a
big deal to me when it comes to safety. I am glad they
are recalling and trying to fix the problems. Every car company
has recalls, it happens. Toyota is a company that is known for
their cars lasting longer than most. I see Toyota improving and
heading towards the direction of hybrid cards. Toyota's external and
internal scanning to understand their business environment. One
criticism of SWOT is that the individuals in the organization who
perform the analysis may be biased. This could be in the form
of being reactive, or just a preconception that they do not
realize because they are performing a process or seeing something
everyday. An outside perspective may be needed to accurately see
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This is often where
an outside consultant may be employed. Perhaps you may even
perform this role for another organization. Deming helped the
Japanese to become leaders in manufacturing. When I attended Total
Quality Management (TQM) training I remember the instructor
remarking that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the worst
Japanese automaker had a better quality record than the best
United States automaker! After several decades of emphasis on
quality, this is no longer true. The automobile manufacturer best
known for Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time supply chain
management is Toyota. However, even Toyota has recently experienced
quality issues resulting in mass recalls. Offering more sizable rebates
is a really great idea especially focusing on the newer vehicles.
There seems to be high demand for used vehicles and offering
rebates for new vehicles may raise their demand. Toyota is
catering to the market of environmentally friendly vehicles like
hybrid and electric cars and if they were to research and find
ways to make those cars more affordable I believe their business
would skyrocket.
