Final project

The project report is 30% of the course weight. Report will have minimum 5 pages of A4 (2500 words), Candara 12 size fonts with 1.5 line space. Students will submit this report before 2359 hours on 24th April, 2022. In order to check plagiarism, submission will be on Moodle through TURNITIN. Similarity rate should be less than 20%

Case

Toyota introduced Total Quality Management (TQM) as long ago as 1961 and was the first to introduce 'Kaizen' to represent the concept of continuous improvement. Toyota adopted lean manufacturing, lean Six Sigma, zero defect strategy, and so many other quality programs successfully. That makes Toyota 7th largest company in the world and and largest automobile company.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is the archetype and shining example of Lean Manufacturing. TPS encompasses not only common Lean-principles such as reducing waste, stimulating flow and creating market-pull, but also includes lean management and the use of other improvement methods such as Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, TOC, QRM, TPM or mixed, customized and integrated forms of those methods.

Recalls

Recently, recalls by Toyota of more than eight million cars to replace floor mats and to adjust accelerator pedals, lead to many news reports and articles. This recall along with so many other recent recalls by Toyota has raised many questions on the QM system of Toyota. For the first time during its existence, the TPS became the target of serious criticism.

Students are invited to come forward and defend the quality management system adopted by Toyota. It is not likely that there is only one cause for the recalls. Probably it is a mix of several of the possible causes. Many of these are problems and challenges not only faced by Toyota, but by all car manufacturers.

In your report you have to:

1. Toyota Production System (TPS) is shining example of Lean Manufacturing. Give your arguments in the favor of and against this statement (20 marks)

2. Summarize top 5 recalls by Toyota within last 5 year time (20 marks)

3. Discuss possible causes of these top 5 recalls (20 marks)

4. List and discuss quality programs adopted by Toyota (20 marks) 5. Recommend future QM strategy for Toyota (20 marks)

Rubric for grading the project:

5 = Details are fully complete and demonstrate deep understanding of content

4 = Report is acceptable but lacks minor details

3 = Report is responsive but not fully complete

2= Major details are missing and shows low level of understanding of the content

1 = Report is lacking multiple major details 0 = Report is not according to the given requirements at all