Toyota has long be the darling of us Operations Professors – and rightfully so. It has replaced GM has the largest (measured in vehicles produced) auto company in the world. And, its financial performance remains solid, even at times when many of its rivals struggle. Yet, the challenge of matching supply with demand exist for Toyota as much as for any producer. While customers wait to order the Prius, production workers at Toyota’s San Antonio plant wait for something useful to do – right now, they spend their time on training and community projects (not to say that these tasks are not useful). Remarkably, Toyota continues to keep the entire San Antonio workforce employed and hence operates with two shifts – management chose to pay the excess capacity rather than going through lay-offs.
Source: Driving.ca, http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=df54a901-2cfb-4740-9507-1cb647edaf8d
August 22, 2008 at 6:07 pm |
This is an example of a ‘X’ strategy:
1) X=operations.-
I don’t know how will be the excess capacity but probably Toyota doesn’t want to be involved in last hour rushes if the trend should provoke the need for that capacity.
2) X=image.-
This is related to previous fears that Toyota could be seen as the outsider that lays our USA jobs off. Besides, for sure the community projects will become a good CSR job.
3) X=HR.-
Keep your talent…, and keep it trained.