BUS 470 Toyota's strategy

1) The heart of Toyota's strategy in motor vehicles is to out-compete rivals by manufacturing world-class, quality vehicles at lower costs and selling them at competitive price levels.  Executing this strategy requires top-notch manufacturing capability and super-efficient management of people, equipment, and materials.  Illustration Capsule 10.2(see attachment) discusses the principles, practices and techniques grounded in Toyota's famed Toyota Production System.  How does Toyota's philosophy of dealing with defects, empowering employees, and developing capabilities impact strategy execution? Why are its slogans such as "Never be satisfied" and "Ask yourself 'Why?' five times important? Discuss with other students

2) Using Google Scholar or the Iona Library's access to EBSCO, PROQUEST or other online business databases, do a search on recent writings about decentralized decision making (decentralizaton) and employee empowerment. Accordingg to the articles you find in the various management journals, what are the conditions under which decision making should be pushed down to lower levels of management? Have you every worked part-time or full-time in a job position where you believe that lower-level front-line employees should be given more decision making authority?.