Strategic Plan Analysis
Abstract
This paper will discuss the management style of Vintage Villa Motor Company and how it compares to the total quality management style of Toyota. Toyota's TQM characteristics will be compared to the characteristics of Vintage Villa, and the differences between the two companies will be discussed. Finally, this paper will address how Toyota's TQM practices could have been integrated into Vintage Villa and how applying these principles could have saved the business.
Vintage Villa
Vintage Villa Motor Company was a self storage facility with Budget truck rentals. On top of that, they sold used Mercedes vehicles and had an onsite antique shop for customers to wander through. The company was made up of the owner and her husband, a manager, a handyman, and two administrative assistants. The management style was more of a dictatorship than anything else.
The owner of Vintage Villa ran the company her way and only her way, even if her ideas did not make sense to her employees or customers. Technology was a taboo and a mission statement was none existent. Rules changed from day to day and quality was something that was perceived, not attained. Problems were hidden from customers and anything could be fixed by "changing the spark plugs" or dusting.
Toyota
Total Quality Management started as Total Productive Maintenance, TPM. This strategy was invented by Toyota, not "W. Edwards Deming or by the U.S. Navy as many people think," (Chamberlain, 2005). On a list of companies worldwide with the "highest reputation for quality management" (Gale, 2004), Toyota comes in at number six.
Toyota believes that the best way to run their business is by eliminating any possibility for problems. In order to do this, they strive to work in the ...