Sustainability of Toyota - Assignment Example

Sustainability of Toyota Introduction The research paper offers an insight into the sustainability of Toyota in different arenas. The concept of sustainability includes the areas starting from the environmental constraints towards the social behaviour, policies and economic valuation. Toyota is a leading automobile industry across the world. The report will look at the sustainability of Toyota to get more insight of the real sustainability practices in the corporate world. In the following sections theoretical models would be discussed for a better understanding of the sustainability practices across the corporate. Sustainability Models In the year2006, World Conservation Union has introduced three verticals of sustainability including environmental, social and economic. The three verticals represent three pillars or three embedded circles which are overlapping to each other. The following are the two models which include several elements in social, economic and environmental scenarios. These models are static models which give limited information; however, these are pretty powerful to a wide range of audience (Tododrov & Marinova, 2009). Figure 1: Model Developed by Newman and Kenworthy (Source: Todorov & Marinova, 2009, p.1218) Figure 2: Model Developed by IUCN (Source: Todorov & Marinova, 2009, p.1218) Another similar model has been developed by IUCN. Back in the year 2000, Hart developed a sustainability framework encompassing the evaluating indicators. According to him, the sustainability indicating elements would be those signs which reflect the company’s responsibilities towards the development of social, economic and environmental aspects leading to the company’s sustainable growth and profitability. Another set of driving forces can relate to the emerging technologies which can provide strong and adverse effect on the existence of energy as well as material intensive industry sectors. Figure 3: Sustainable Value Framework (Source: Hart & Milstein, 2003, p.57) Sustainability: The Toyota Way Economic Sustainability Economic sustainability is carrying out sustainability development in a financially feasible way. Toyota is a leading automotive company with its operation spread across the globe. Toyota has its own fundamental policy to establish its sustainability in the business. The emphasis has been on the incorporate accurate and detailed data and information to evaluate the different aspects to achieve the sustainable development. In this section, SWOT analysis of Toyota has been discussed to assess the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of this leading automobile firm. Strengths Since last few years, the company has stretched its production as well as introduced several advancements to satisfy the requirements of the worldwide customer base purchasing the Toyota vehicles. The company has established an integrated quality information system for the customer complaint management through the information gathering from the distributors, dealers and more other sources. It also encourages the information sharing related to warranty repair as well as technical information specific to the market. Figure 4: Information Gathering and Sharing (Source: Toyota-a, 2011) In the decision making process regarding the enhancement of safety and security of the customers, the company encourages the participation of customer representatives from various regions. This is a mechanism to improve mainly based on the customer feedback as well as regional concerns (Toyota-a, 2011). All these have helped the company to score high in customer satisfaction. Toyota’s strengths lie in its heavy spending in the research and development and its obsession to continual improvement. The company’ strengths do not lie in one single core competency; rather, it emerges from complex and knitted set of unusual skills. Toyota has been working closely with its suppliers and frequently finding various ways to innovate and improve. Its operation processes and its relationship with its suppliers have helped the company to cut on the costs (Treece, 2006). Toyota’s long term strategy is to introduce better cars which can enrich the lives of the communities. The company wants a sustainable growth in its business which is rooted through the Toyota values. Looking at the commitment and strengths of Toyota, it would be wrong to say that the company would surely follow its long term strategies. The company has come up with processes and systems which are in compliance with its long term strategies. Weaknesses In the recent years, Toyota has been experiencing some manufacturing issues in its cars. It has also led to calling back a considerable number of vehicles. This has emerged as the weakness of the company as it has put an adverse effect on the brand image. The company would have to drive high to regain the customer confidence lost due to such events. Threats With the new entrants entering into the automobile industry, Toyota may have to face tough competition from both the existing players and the new ones. Moreover, the recent recession has come up as a significant threat for the entire automobile industry. Opportunity Toyota has introduced hybrid cars which are environment friendly and fuel efficient. In the wake of environment awareness, this has gained enough popularity among the customers. So, the company is required to explore this opportunity to enhance its brand image further. Environment Sustainability Environment sustainability is moving towards sustainable development keeping the nature intact. Toyota has specified its environmental concerns and is committed to increase its environmental activities based on three significant elements including establishment of low-carbon society, introduction of more recycling, carrying out activities which are in compliance with the environment and would protect the environment (Toyota-b, 2011). In the coming future, the automobile industry can contribute significantly to the development of one low carbon society by increasing the fuel efficiency, establishing new technologies which would reduce the carbon emission. The following image summarises its activities to contribute towards the sustainable environmental development. Figure 5: Sustainable Environmental Development (Source: Toyota-b, 2011) The company has introduced eco driving tips for their customers. This is a way to drive in a more careful and environmental friendly way by saving on fuel consumption leading to less carbon emission. The company has introduced hybrid vehicles to be more environmentally efficient in its operation. The vehicles would give smooth and seamless experience with quiet engines and low emission of CO2 and other pollutants. Its Prius hybrid vehicle is equipped with technology which has enabled the company to achieve around 9 % reduction in the average carbon emission by Toyota. The energy vehicles of the organisation effectively reduce the emission of carbon-di-oxide by utilising the renewable energy as well as nuclear power. At each of the stages of the life cycle of vehicles, Toyota has aimed to reduce the carbon emission to encourage energy savings in the upcoming automobiles. Until the year 2008, Toyota had also introduced gasoline engines with high efficiency in its vehicles; thereafter, it has moved towards the enhancement of fuel efficiency. In the area of production, the company had taken breakthrough approaches towards enhanced productivity including innovation and enhancement in engineering. At the same time, the company has put its effort to eliminate wastage of energy to increase energy efficiency in its production and manufacturing unit. Figure 6: Rate of reduction in carbon emission (Source: Tesco-c, 2011) “In order to reduce the use of packaging and wrapping materials, Toyota implemented measures that included simplifying wrapping specifications (e.g., reducing wrapping materials for bumpers) and expanding the use of returnable shipping constraints” (Toyota-d, 2011). The company has been working hard with the recycling firm to operate in compliance with the Automobile recycling law. Toyota also encouraged its employees to increase their environment awareness. Apart from that, the company has been also indulged in various afforestation activities. The company has been using low carbon production technologies and daily quality improvement activities. Social Sustainability Social sustainability development leads to doing business considering the individual needs in the community. Toyota also keeps its responsibilities up when it come to the social development. The company has been following four guiding principles. Toyota believes in equality among its employees. At the same time, the company has been promoting diversity within the workplace. Moreover, the company has been committed to provide clean and safe products to enhance the quality of lives of the stakeholders through all the activities. Toyota, individually as well as with partnership with other institutions, promote activities which contribute to the enrichment of society and community. The company has introduced philosophy to respect the people, culture, customs, laws, history and social alignment of each country, Toyota is operating in. The organisation always searches for cleaner, superior and safer technology which would satisfy the changing requirements of society. The company has also taken initiatives to improve the traffic society. Toyota has initiated events and campaigns to educate the people in the traffic society. Events on driver communication, Child safety communication and traffic safety campaigns are organised by Toyota to enlighten the people regarding the traffic safety. The organisation also donates the children educational materials on the traffic safety. The company also runs a safety school as well as safety education centre for the benefits of the society. The company has taken initiatives to produce vehicles with enhanced safety aspects. The organisation has carried out free engineering and science workshops for the school children and youth to encourage them on more science related activities. The company had also arranged certain events for the children to make social contribution (Toyota-e, 2011). Figure 7: Relationship with the stakeholders (Source: Toyota-f, 2011) The company has been following the ‘customer first’ approach in their activities to regain the trust and confidence on the brand. At the same time, the company has put its effort in human resource development to enable them to avail the required training and expertise. Moreover, the company also has programs for the physically disable and over sixty people. Apart from that, the company has been quite successful to carry out its responsibilities towards other stakeholders including suppliers and business partners (Toyota-f, 2011). The company encourages mutual trust and respect among both management and labour parties. The company also stimulates professional as well as personal growth, share the development opportunities and maximise both individual as well as team performance in the workplace. Conclusion & Recommendations In today’s business environment, industrial activity has increased further where it may out some irrevocable effect in climate, ecosystem function and biodiversity leading to effect on the entire global environment. Undoubtedly, increased industrialisation has fabricates incredible economic benefits. However, at the same time, it has given birth to huge pollution burdens and encouraged continual consumption of resources, virgin materials as well as fossil fuels with increasing rate. Pollution prevention and resource efficiency are two significant steps towards achievement of sustainable development. Toyota can produce an increasing number of hybrid cars in the coming years. The company is also required to strengthen its supervision to control the air pollution in the environment. The company must take the opportunity in the automobile sectors. The company has been able to attract a considerable number of customers in the hybrid car segment and must focus on innovation and development to continue its success. In the above image, it is quite clear that the company is aligning most of its strategies to enhance social and environmental sustainability. However, the company is also required to strengthen its strengths to explore coming opportunities to improve its economic sustainability. Toyota is required to work hard on its brand image to enhance consumer perception about its brand, minimise the cost incurred to meet the customer expectations. These are expected to result in extended customer base and increased revenue amount for Toyota. Reflect on the Group Work Sustainability is an important concept in both the academia and the industry professionals. It took 5 meetings to finalise the presentation. The experience was enjoying. However, it was tough to manage all the team members and fetch the consent of all the members. The topic was pretty interesting. Each of the members has contributed considerably. However, difficulties started emerging with so many ideas coming in. However, effort has been put to take the best idea to make it a better presentation. While working in a group, certain conflicts have also developed which have been addressed appropriately by the team members. As a team leader, it was my responsibility to minimise the conflict to smoothen the flow of ideas in the meetings. One significant issue in team is the communication. A crucial task of the team leader is to encourage the team in establishing a successful communication strategy. Moreover, as a team leader, I always encouraged the communication, continue and review the same. At first, it would require to evaluate different kinds of work carried out by the team and the required for the same. Effort has been taken to add value through communication rather than creating overload on the team members (Kimball, n.d.). There have been certain incidents which can be treated as the communication pitfalls for the group. “A group pitfall is defined as anything that might reduce the effectiveness of a group; anything that might diminish its desired outcomes” (Burtis & Turman, 2006, p.15). It has been noticed that in the group meetings there were various ideas given by the team members. However, some of them were innovative, but not relevant to the research we were carrying out. This increased the probability of group breakdown where the group is unable to accomplish its objectives. However, efforts have been made to encourage the flow of relevant ideas to enhance the project further. Communication among the team members has been encouraged to minimise the conflict and enhance the relationship among the members. Another significant concept in group work is the time management. To carry out the task properly, a calendar was kept at the place of our group meeting (Mancini, 2003). The significant points of each and every meeting have been noted down to refer in the future. Apart from that, all of the team members were given certain tasks with certain deadlines to ensure that no one missed the deadline. At the end, our team was able to accomplish its preset objectives with the accomplishment of the project. Reference Burtis, J. & Turman, P. 2006. Group communication pitfalls. Sage. Hart, L. S. & Milstein, B. M. 2003. Creating sustainable value. [Pdf]. Available at: http://e4sw.org/papers/Hart_Milstein.pdf [Accessed on March 11, 2011]. Kimball, L. No Date. Developing the Team's Communications Strategy. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.groupjazz.com/pdf/matrix.pdf [Accessed on March 16, 2011]. Mancini, M. 2003. Time Management. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.rgrg.ir/documents/books/McGraw-Hill%20-%20Briefcase%20Books%20-%20Time%20Management.pdf [Accessed on March 16, 2011]. Todorov, V. I. & Marinova, D. July, 2009. Models of Sustainability. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim09/D2/todorov_D2a.pdf [Accessed on March 11, 2011]. Toyota-a. 2011. The Quality Issue: Background and Future Prospects - Seeing the Quality Issue as an Opportunity for Renewal and Improvement / Firm Action Throughout Its Operations in Each Field. [Online]. Available at: http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/sustainability_report/special_story/the_quality_issue_background_and_future_prospects.html [Accessed on March 11, 2011]. Toyota-b. 2011. Environmental Philosophy. [Online]. Available at: http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/sustainability_report/highlights_in_fy2009_environmental_aspects/environmental_philisophy.html [Accessed on March 11, 2011]. Tesco-c. 2011. Energy/Global Warming. [Online]. Available at: http://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/sustainability_report/highlights_in_fy2009_environmental_aspects/energy_global_warming.html [Accessed on March 11, 2011]. Toyota-d. 2011. Recycling of Resources. [Online]. 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