“Conventional ways of thinking and conducting business no longer enable us to expand sustainably due to sudden and significant changes in the business environment. Now that we are at a turning point, we must create a new business model.”
Japan, Toyota City, March 26, 2015
Since unveiling its new Global Vision four years ago, Toyota has made notable strides in achieving sustainable growth through producing ever-better automobiles. This has necessitated a change in how cars are made, with the main goals being significantly better product development and more competitive production facilities. This activity is supported by the development of a qualified workforce and is based on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA).
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, commented on the current state of the company: “I want 2015 to be the year that we go forward with bold and steady growth. We can achieve this by introducing new models that feature TNGA and utilizing this deliberate pause to boost our competitiveness. It is crucial that we increase our genuine competitiveness, notably by fortifying our human resources, in light of the new management structure we introduced this month. We want to create a business that develops sustainably, like a sturdy tree.”
In This Article...
Making better cars through TNGA
Toyota is employing a cutting-edge, integrated development approach for vehicle platforms and powertrain components in order to significantly increase core vehicle performance and product appeal. To cut down on development costs by at least 20%, vehicle development is also being organized to encourage strategic sharing of parts and powertrain components. And by collaborating even more closely with suppliers, Toyota hopes to further cut expenses and reinvest the saved money in the creation of cutting-edge technology and improved product appeal.
All cars’ core systems are their powertrains. They must be developed in concert with vehicle platforms, which serve as the framework for all vehicles. Toyota is concentrating on joint development of powertrains and platforms to create a lower center of gravity, on making components lighter and more compact, and on applying unified design through modularization to improve driving performance and fuel efficiency while also giving vehicles more attractive styling and improved handling. Toyota has boosted the overall fuel efficiency of its powertrains by around 25% and the overall power output by more than 15% by enhancing thermal efficiency in engines and energy-relay efficiency in transmissions. Additionally, Toyota anticipates increasing the overall fuel efficiency of its hybrid vehicle systems by more than 15% by redesigning the arrangement of the drive units and reducing the size of the electric motors, inverters, and batteries. This year, Toyota will start releasing its new powertrain components, and the company will keep creating cutting-edge new hybrid engines, transmissions, and systems.
Through inventive upgrades to its car underbodies and suspensions, Toyota has created new platforms. The center of gravity of powertrain parts has also been moved and lowered, which has helped to produce beautiful, low-stance designs, responsive handling, a premium drive experience, and crash performance that provides safety and peace of mind. Toyota intends to redesign the body structure to initially boost rigidity by as much as 30 to 65 percent overall, and then further boost rigidity by attaching body parts with laser screw welding technology. Toyota will introduce a midsize front-wheel-drive vehicle this year to kick off the rollout of its new platforms, which will then include specialized new platforms for front-wheel-drive compact, big, and rear-wheel-drive vehicles. In 2020, Toyota anticipates using the new platforms in almost half of its global sales.
Improving Toyota’s production systems
Toyota stopped planning new production facilities after opting to intentionally pause to increase its competitiveness. Instead, it has focused on making the most of its current facilities and on reducing the amount of capital investment needed at factories when new vehicle models are introduced. Toyota is also aiming to improve the competitiveness of its factories by drastically lowering the initial investment requirements and enhancing both environmental performance and safety.
Toyota is creating production technologies that will make it simpler than ever to transform innovative ideas and features into reality in order to boost product appeal. In preparation for transitioning into a new phase of sustainable growth, Toyota is also doing more to develop its human resources.
In order to fully utilize even the smallest capacity surpluses at each plant, Toyota has been continuously improving operational availability and increasing the diversity of its production lines since 2013. This has included linking the production of the same model vehicles across various factories. Toyota’s overall global load factor (line utilization rate) has since improved from roughly 70% in 2009 to more than 90%.
In comparison to 2008 levels, Toyota hopes to cut the capital expenditure needed to set up a production line for a new model by about 50% this year. The manufacture of new engines, transmissions, and associated parts is also covered in this study.
Although the investment requirements for production lines would temporarily increase due to the rollout of new TNGA platforms and powertrain components, investment levels are still anticipated to be lower than in 2008. Additionally, because TNGA’s strategic part and component sharing enables the addition of multiple platforms and powertrain components to a line for mixed production, Toyota will be able to adapt quickly to changes in demand and realize significant savings in terms of the investment in production lines.
Toyota is fusing the learnings from its efforts to make plants more competitive with the production engineering approach and tools developed through building ever-better automobiles. Toyota wants to break the mold by establishing production facilities that are both competitive and designed for long-term expansion.
Toyota is getting close to the day when it can anticipate a 40% reduction in initial plant expenditure from 2008 levels. The main causes include efforts to create “simple and slender” production lines, including reducing the size of painting booth facilities and transitioning to small equipment that may be mounted on top of plant floors. Contrarily, modern facilities frequently call for massive machinery that must be anchored into the ground or suspended from ceilings. This decrease in investment needed frees up resources.
Toyota intends to cut plant CO2 output by up to 55% by improving energy management and making factories more environmentally friendly.
Toyota wants to move away from facilities that depend on volume and toward plants that are always competitive through these combined projects.
Toyota is enhancing product attractiveness in the area of production engineering by utilising the resources made available through its investment-reduction programs. Production engineering initiatives include revolutionizing forming technologies to allow the production of extremely stylish components and developing more advanced welding technologies for greater body rigidity. New technologies are already making their way onto a number of mass-production vehicle models.
Ever-better Cars Media Event
At a meeting for international journalists on March 26, Toyota provided the most recent information on ever-better automobiles and the Toyota New Global Architecture. The event, which was held at Toyota City, Japan, featured several speeches by senior Toyota employees as well as demonstrations of real manufacturing technologies from a Toyota facility. The following contains a few of the materials that were displayed to guests.
How did Toyota come up with its plan?
Market encroachment Market penetration is Toyota’s major intensive expansion strategy. By reaching and attracting more clients in the company’s existing markets, this focused strategy fosters business growth. Toyota makes sure that it has items for every market category in order to carry out its aggressive growth strategy. For every sort of customer, the corporation, for instance, offers sedans, trucks, SUVs, luxury cars, and other product lines. By enabling Toyota to maximize sales volume, which secures profits despite relatively low selling prices, this intensive expansion approach complements the cost leadership element of Toyota’s general strategy.
Development of products. Product development is Toyota’s secondary, high-intensity growth strategy. By luring customers to new items, this aggressive technique promotes Toyota’s growth. The corporation employs quick innovation as part of its intensive expansion strategy. The business is renowned for its techniques for innovation. This intense expansion plan, for instance, enables the company to draw in clients who care about the environment with the Toyota Prius. Utilizing cutting-edge items that are appealing due to their novelty or cutting-edge features, this aggressive growth approach supports Toyota’s broad differentiation generic strategy.
Market expansion. Toyota is already present in every country. As a result, market expansion serves as the company’s primary strategy for rapid growth. Toyota expands through this focused strategy by selling to or entering new markets. However, the business is already present in the majority of international marketplaces. Additionally, the business already sells its goods to all market segments. By boosting Toyota’s global market presence, this intensive expansion plan supports the company’s generic cost leadership objective.
- A. Gargasas, I. Mugiene (2012). Intensive growth strategy tendencies in the provision of logistical services to agricultural organizations. Rural business and infrastructure development: management theory and studies, 34(5), pp. 4753.
What can Toyota do to enhance its marketing approach?
Toyota uses a combination of demographic, geographic, and psychographic segmentation techniques to identify different client groups and create customer profiles.
Toyota utilizes a differentiated targeting approach to produce and market its products in accordance with client categories and raise customer satisfaction.
The corporation uses value-based and user benefit positioning tactics to draw attention to the practical advantages of its products and services.
What difficulties is Toyota facing?
Compared to their rivals in the US and European auto industries, Japanese automakers were late adopters. Nevertheless, the automotive sector from the Land of the Rising Sun has outperformed its rivals with a far larger market base and reputation.
There may only be a small number of people who have never heard of a Toyota car, despite the fact that they are frequently seen on American and British roads. In reality, Toyota produced more than 10 million cars annually as of 2016, making it the largest automaker in the world. The business has produced automobiles since the 1930s and holds the distinction of most reliable market leader in the selling of hybrid electric vehicles (mainly its successful model, Toyota Prius). Additionally, as of September 2018, the business held the title of sixth-largest by revenue in the entire world.
Even though Toyota Motor Corporation has established itself in the top ranks of the automobile industry, not all of its models are profitable. Let’s face it, no car is flawless, and Toyota is no exception. With new technology come new difficulties, and Toyota was the first to experience one in 2011.
Consumers were shocked when Toyota announced its recalls of the Toyota motor cars in a widely publicized sequence of the first-ever recalls of Toyota in the US. The Toyota Motor Corporation announced a huge recall of 3.8 million vehicles after citing a potential issue wherein improperly or badly positioned floor mats under the driver’s seat could cause uncontrollable acceleration in a variety of models. The revelation by Toyota followed a contentious report that was brought on by a violent collision in California where a Lexus sedan’s accelerator became stuck as a result of an improperly positioned floor mat, ultimately killing the driver.
Toyota is the go-to automaker for auto enthusiasts, mid-range automobile consumers, and college students. Its vehicles are in a league of their own and have long been praised for their exceptional excellence. Toyota Motor Corporation recaptured the top spot for automakers and earned the ninth spot for dependability in a 2013 Telegraph survey. However, this situation has gotten worse as a result of Toyota cars’ numerous issues. The common issues with Toyota are covered in this article along with potential effects on the drivers.
The name of the Toyota Corolla car suggests practicality and family-friendliness. The Corolla debuted in 1966 and by July 2013 has sold an astounding 40 million units, making it the best-selling Toyota in the automotive industry. Unfortunately, the airbag issues that afflicted several other Corolla issues in 2007 persisted even in the powerful bestseller model. This occurred when over a million vehicles, mostly Corolla automobiles, were recalled because their airbags might burst when deployed, increasing the risk of accidents and/or injuries for the drivers and passengers.
Although the Toyota airbags issue exploded in 2007, it wasn’t the first or last time the airbags had given Toyota a problem. Thousands of vehicles were to be recalled by the business in 2014, which regrettably included the Hilux models produced between 2004 and 2010. The airbags were deactivated as a result of a minor problem in the car’s electrical wiring system. As if this weren’t bad enough, the Hilux, which had a sizable market as the go-to vehicle for adventurers and travelers, was demoted, causing a big PR catastrophe for Toyota. In a high-end vehicle like the Hilux, the defective airbags deactivating on their own poses a serious security risk because it could result in serious consequences like dangerous highway collisions or high impact crashes during emergency braking on slick roads.
Fortunately, this issue is not one that frequently affects well-known Toyota vehicles. However, it happened a lot in the 2010 Toyota Rav4 and Rav4 EV models. Although the wipers initially worked as intended, the water dripping from the windshield gradually causes wear and corrosion at the wiper’s motor joint link. The crank arm and link of the wiper gradually detach from one another as a result of wear and erosion. Minor wiper issues might not be a big deal, but persistent issues like these cause drivers headaches over the long run. First of all, the motorist is forced to contact the mechanic every time the wipers become stuck for a short remedy that also doesn’t last very long because of the continual wear and corrosion in the wiper’s motor link joint. Second, stuck wipers pose a serious security risk to drivers, particularly while traveling at highway speeds and during periods of rain. This significantly raises the possibility of a collision or a traffic accident.
Recall that we talked about how using floor mats that weren’t compatible caused accidents due to uncontrolled acceleration. While the driver is operating the vehicle, this problem could cause the accelerator pedal to become stuck. Several well-known Toyota vehicles, including the Highlander, Corolla, Matrix, and Venza, were impacted by this issue, according to documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
If this issue arises abruptly, the automobile may start moving very quickly while the driver tries to slow it down or make an emergency escape from oncoming traffic. Approximately 1.1 million products were recalled as a result of this problem, according to a report.
Toyota reportedly recalled 40,000 engines as a result of a minor manufacturing fault that may have resulted in an engine crack. The engine issue is brought by by coolant or oil escaping from the crack, which may cause the engines to stall, overheat, or even catch fire. For the models 2020 Camry, 2020 Camry hybrid, 2020 Avalon hybrid, 2019 and 2020 RAV4 and RAV4 hybrid, and 2020 Lexus ES300H for the builds between September and December 2019, this engine stalling primarily affects 2.5 liter, four cylinder engines. Even though it doesn’t happen very often, this issue can be harmful for the driver if it does. This problem may result in engine noise, engine smoke, flickering warning lights, and/or engine overheating. The cost of this issue for the driver includes not just repeated trips to the auto dealer, warehouse, or mechanic, but also the accompanying mechanic fee for each visit. The drivers had to pay enormous sums of repair fees to keep their vehicles operating on the lanes because Toyota was unable to identify the precise reason why the engines were breaking. Each engine repair visit could cost as much as $450 in repair expenses.
Along with the costs of repairs, the dealers may occasionally advise entirely replacing the engines, which, depending on the model, might cost anywhere from $3000 to $5000. If the replacement is not covered by the warranty, this entails additional costs.
Additionally, the driver may endure a great deal of discomfort due to the engine’s frequent overheating, warning lights that flash without a valid reason, unpleasant engine noises, and engine smoke. This also entails unexpected roadside incidents and security concerns. For instance, if the engine overheated and started to smoke, requiring the driver to halt the vehicle in the middle of the road, or if they needed to make a quick getaway through heavy traffic because the engine might catch fire.
Owners of Toyota vehicles have also expressed concern about a number of other issues with various models, in addition to the issues already mentioned. These consist of:
- jammed sliding doors;
- vehicle seats that are too hot;
- heavy oil use (low mpl); more common in 4Runner and Land Cruiser;
- wear and tear on the front seats (particularly in an Auris);
- lack of power (caused by an exhaust gas recirculation valve that is blocked);
- While driving, headlights may fail (more frequently in Prius);
- premature gear wheel wear (most frequently reported by Yaris owners);
- failures of the air conditioner due to compression issues;
- Gearbox issues brought on by ECU issues are fortunately covered under warranty (more prevalent in Yaris and RAV4);
Overall, Toyota is a trustworthy brand, but every car model, irrespective of the maker, has some shortcomings. This also applies to mid-range small cars. As a result, certain models have issues, while others may have additional issues as mentioned above. Even while many issues are covered by warranties, certain issues may persist past these time limits and end up costing the driver a lot of money to remedy. Other non-technical issues like insufficient or no free maintenance may also result in unwarranted costs for the driver.
Our lemon law experts are available to assist Toyota owners who require assistance submitting claims for vehicle damage or problems brought on by any of the aforementioned faults or concerns with their Toyota vehicles. You can ask our legal counsel for assistance with your Toyota lemon law claims.