We will be studying managerial accounting this summer. Toyota Lean Production Methods now constitutes an advanced cost course in many universities. I ran across these posts from readers at
In an effort to slow the crash, Toyota Motor Corp. is undertaking a massive overhaul and management reorganization next month when Akio Toyoda takes over as president. Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, will be officially appointed on June 23 at the annual shareholder's meeting. With the new president in place, the Financial Times is reporting that the company will replace 40% of its senior managers and bring back Yoshimi Inaba, a former senior executive, to lead U.S. operations.
While the Japanese automaker is reportedly working on slashing costs by $8.22 billion, it reported the first operating cost in its 71-year history last week. As further evidence of the company's struggle in today's marketplace, Toyota's net loss of $7.87 billion in the latest quarter exceeding even GM's net loss of $5.97 billion during the same period.
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While everyone loves to blast Detroit, Toyota has been managing more in the bad stereotype of Detroit than most imagine. Toyota over the last few years has really been pushing for market share and growth, having less concern for good product and quality. I know QC personnel who worked for Toyota suppliers, and actually it was the Americans knocking down unacceptable shipments, and the Upper Management shipping to meet deadlines. Some of these problems resulted in the recall of Toyota vehicles. Toyota pushed into the larger Truck and SUV market letting some of their smaller bread and butter vehicles such as the Toyota Corolla languish. The last iteration of the Toyota Camry was released with many quality problems. Toyota aggressivly expanded the Truck Plants, and when the demand did not materialize, they were left with a lot of over capacity. The Tundra also had its share of teething problems. The Greenies go on about how green the Prius is, but that vehicle was subsidized by the gas guzzlers. Mary Ann Keller, an auto analyst stated that the Prius was a losing proposition and Toyota was making it at a loss. My brother in law is a Toyota fan, and even he has noticed the quality of the vehicles declining. It was always said," That when Toyota became as large as GM, it would be like GM in more ways than one." Toyota needs to get back to basics, just like the "infamous" Detroit auto manufacturers need to do. I always heard that prior to 1958, GM Management used to talk about building better cars. After 1959, GM Management concentrated on financial performance to appease Wall Street. This took about 10 years to filter down to the shop floor, and sure enough GM started making junk about 1970 and just kept it up. John Rock and Bob Lutz helped turn the tide, but GM is a big ship. While the Titanic is turning, it may be too little, too late.
There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today, and something wrong with our bloody system as well.
There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today, and something wrong with our bloody system as well.
Professor Elam
Do companies become clones of who they never wanted to be? Consider discount chains
Gibsons in Texas gave way to Woolco, then K Mart, Sears just plain got lost, then Wal Mart and hey where did Mervyn's go, and perhaps Target and now Wal Mart is in trouble,
My opinion is that the Tundra and the commitment to it, was a strategic mistake. Toyota
was a green company famous for economy cars. Now the Camry is a full sized vehicle,
this pave the way for KIA Hyundai to come in and re invent themselves as the new toyota, notice how
many Sephias and Spectras you see running around?
Such is the real stuff of Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, and managerial accounting
Professor Elam 
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