BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Business Operations and Systems: Toyota



Business Operations and Systems: Toyota

Introduction

This paper aims to explore the recent trends in Operations Management which are a result of different factors i.e. environment, economy etc. Aiming at a better understanding of the current developments in the area. Discussing the general picture of Operations Management, this paper aims to highlight the most important and popular trends at the moment.

The paper will discuss the Lean Operations and JIT as one of the most important trend in great detail. With the help of several examples, the paper will endeavour to find out how the concept of lean is drastically affecting the way Operations Management is conceived.

The trend in Operations management are never fads, they have very good reason to be in existence. They incorporate a lot of lessons from the past and can affect the future in several ways. From the, industrial revolution in 1769 up to the recent internet revolution, and in order to make them more efficient and business more profitable.

This paper will focus on a very few of such recent trends which have come up as the need of the hour and will dictate the future of the businesses. In the course of discussion, the paper discovers how Lean Operations influences all other trends popular in the field of Operations Management at the moment. Different aspects of Lean philosophy go on to define all the various trends as inseparable parts of lean operations. This makes an interesting study as to how the Operations Management has evolved in the face of changing businesses and the recent trends such as economy and environment, to give a very clear idea about what to expect in the near future, with respect to Operations Management.

While discussing Lean Operations, it becomes inevitable to avoid the case of Toyota and the success it has achieved because of its lean philosophy. Hence, the paper also touches upon relevant aspects of the case of Toyota, which have affected the way we see Operations Management today.

Discussion

Recent Trends

From the, division of labour to scientific management and mass production, operational Management has always tried to adjust the need of the businesses by improvising and innovating with several trends. Similarly, the following discussion illustrates how Operations are strategized these days to be more environmental and economic friendly, which are affecting Operation Management.

Computer-aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM):

After the, trend of Scientific Management and automation, the next big step was CAD/CAM. These computer-aided operations meant that all the designing and manufacturing of the product would be done with the help of computers making the operations way more efficient (Groover, 1997).These systems immensely helped in new product development and redesigning the processes. General Motors had its first brush with computer-aided systems in 1996 and ended up saving time and money by using these systems. It helped the company launch new vehicles faster and more efficiently by making the process much smoother (ICMR, 2002).

Shrinking product life cycle:

In the past, product life cycle used to be comparatively longer and when ...