Toyota Knowledge Management Case Study

Knowledge is considered as one of the most important and competitive resource for sustenance of the organisation (Zack, 1999). It can be compared to the strategic resource that can be used and applied in various frames of the organisation. Experienced managers in the organisations believe that company can receive strategic advantage through knowledge and not the strategies or actions implemented by competitors. Knowledge can be regarded as a strong approach that opens numerous ways of success. It is that weapon that help organisation to evaluate solutions in financial and other professional difficulties.

While Knowledge Management (KM) is important in any business however, there is no real agreed upon definition. KM is a concept that includes the

The trucking industry describes knowledge management components very precisely. In describing each phase rather it be (1) Data (2) Information (3) Tribal knowledge (4) Knowledge management (5) Knowledge Based decision making, each one plays an integral part around increasing quality & performances. Throughout trucking, there are always continuous growth and improvement within our industry. There are various departments within the company that mission is to find new, innovation to help improve trucking. The company (Swift) has developed an infrastructure, which allows various methods to improve customer and driver experience. Each phase of the knowledge management cycle looks to enhance and improve strategic solutions for efficiency.

As there is rapid growth in the business sector and information technology in the global market there are many factors which has to be managed and changed with the time in order keep up with the growing technology and knowledge management is one of those important factors. The term knowledge management throws light on the procedure of how knowledge is used in an organization. Thus it includes

In addition to worldwide learning, how to manage knowledge is also a key to multinational corporations’ success (Bartlett

Intellectual capital is the combined knowledge of employees within an organization (Intellectual, 2013). This knowledge is to add value to the organization in ways such as increase profits, provide products or services to customers, gain competitive advantage, improve processes, or other types of capital. This paper will show five different types of intellectual capital that adds value to an organization. It will provide examples of each intellectual capital, whether that capital is identifiable or unidentifiable as an asset, and how each provides value to the organization.

The company's best-known hardware products are Macintosh computers, the iPod and the iPhone. Apple software have the Mac OS X operating system, the iTunes media browser, the iLife suite of multimedia and editing software, the iWork suite of productivity software, and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional visual and movie-industry software products. Apple Inc. operates more than 250 retail stores in nine countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. Apple established in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was called "Apple Computer, Inc." for its first 30 years, but dropped the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007 to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers.

Firstly, an organization must be able to have a set of guiding principles that can be followed through KM. It therefore implies that knowledge management is a process that must be followed critically. Secondly, the principles must be applied selectively and appropriately. One of the factors to be considered is that there should be a clear definition of goals. This helps team members to develop a sense of direction that is important in the entire process. Secondly, management must be transparent to employees and other pertinent internal stakeholders. Thirdly, appropriate budgeting of the resources is of paramount importance, followed by effecting the allocation expeditiously (Jennex, 2008). Fourthly, it is of paramount importance to recruit an able team and promote internal and experienced employees as a way of encouraging them to be part of the company. Fifthly, there should be a defined structure of the knowledge management that can serve as a standard against which achievement can be measured (Jennex, 2008).

Toyota has always been one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world since its inception in 1937. It was Sakichi Toyoda’s personality traits that Toyota remains as the most admired company in the world. Sakichi Toyoda possessed a risk taking personality, because of which the current Toyota, which we see today has made its birth. Toyota’s legendary business model, management principles and business philosophy changed the way in which business in done by automobile industry. Concepts like “Just in Time” production, Genchi genbutsu (go and see to understand) made Toyota different from its competitors.

The case describes the details about the production process of Toyota and the principles they are following, like JIT & Jidoka in Toyota Production System (TPS), heijunka & kaizen. How they have control the cost, maintain quality through process

ABSTRACT- Globalization is seen as an essential part for Malaysian Automotive Industry (MAI). Through globalisation MAI can build their competitive advantage. Automotive industry mainly focused on sustainability, performance, quality and financial factors. Automotive industry in Malaysia is seen as one of the most important economic sector by revenue which mainly comes from the contribution of Perusahaan Otomotif Nasional (PROTON). The purpose of this research is to study the competence of PROTON cars in term of many aspects by surveying the Malaysian public which how they view PROTON cars as their national car. Furthermore, I would like to suggest the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) in the Malaysian Automotive Industry. KM can be used as a tool to improve efficiency and competitiveness.

Within the Army organizations of today knowledge management plays a huge role in the dissemination of information to the unit and it’s soldiers. This is no different for the aviation unit in which I operate. This information can be found in FM 6-01.1, Knowledge Management Operations. It defines knowledge management as the process of enabling knowledge flow to enhance shared understanding, learning, and decision-making. But when the unit was surveyed about their understanding of knowledge management the results were surprising.

On the other hand it is said that knowledge management system is more than just a piece of application. It also involves change in organizational culture in the way their employees can have relevant environment to develop the knowledge.it is organization culture, which holds the key to success. It also requires full cooperation of management. These are few ethical challenges every organization must face but every organization have their own sets of objectives to bring knowledge management system into their organization.

The major problem that Toyota is facing with its Tundra plants in North America is the sharp drop in demand of pick-up trucks. As the global demand shifted from trucks to smaller cars, sales of the Tundra had been down by 53%. Toyota also faced the problem of overstocks of the 2008 Tundra models due to the unexpected sharp drop in demand. As Toyota emphasizes on its knowledge management system, the five principles of challenge, kaizen, genchi genbutsu, respect and teamwork become the essential strategies for Toyota to success. Therefore, laying off workers would not be a good solution, as it would harm the company’s strategy and knowledge management efforts. However, there are other actions that Toyota can take to hedge its

Intellectual capital has attracted considerable interest from both academics and practitioners. Research in this area has highlighted the importance of intellectual capital in generating and sustaining organizational competitive advantage (Bontis, 2000;); is generally conceptualized as “intellectual material - knowledge, information, experience, core technique, intellectual property, and customer relationship that can be put to use to create wealth” (Stewart, 1997); a knowledge-based economy, characterized by a rapid expansion of knowledge-intensive industries creating and exploiting knowledge and information in all sectors of the economy (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).