Quality Management – Toyota
Part A: Toyota
1.Develop a diagram that summarizes what Toyota has done in response to its recent quality recall problems. Focus on the changes by functional area (i.e. Management, Product Design, Quality, and Manufacturing).
2.Evaluate the statement in the case made by Toru Sakuragi that “ Toyota has been caught between a need to cut costs to overcome the strong yen and the need to improve quality to prevent recalls.” And that “They are now pursuing both strategies but they are essentially at odds with one another.” Is this a realistic strategy? Do you have suggestions for how the strategy might be improved?
3.Suggest improvements that you feel could be made to Toyota’s quality program. Also, what might Toyota do to improve its image to the consumer relative to quality?
Part B: Quality Control Analytics at Toyota
a.If the specification is such that no washer should be greater than 2.4 millimeters, assuming that the thicknesses are distributed normally, what fraction of the output is expected to be greater than this thickness?
b. What if there is an upper and lower specification, where the upper thickness limit is 2.4 and the lower thickness limit 1.4, what fraction of the output is expected to be out of tolerance?
c.What is the Cpk for the process?
d.What would be the Cpk for the process if it were centered (assume the process standard deviation is the same)?
e.What percentage of output would be expected to be out of tolerance if the process were centered?
f.If the process could be improved so that the standard deviation was only about .10 millimeters, what would be the best that could be expected with the processes relative to fraction defective?
g.Setup X-bar and Range control charts for the current process. Assume the operators will take samples of 10 washers at a time.
h.Plot the data on your control charts. Does the current process appear to be in control?
