Toyota Motor Corporation in Australia orients in its activities to the sustainable practices in order to overcome sustainability issues associated with the environmental protection and usage of resources.
To protect the environment and community’s interests, Toyota should focus on implementing strategies developed to improve the technologies of the car production in relation to vehicle design, reduction of greenhouse emissions, orientation to recycling processes, use of innovative materials, and reduction of the energy usage (Dunphy, Griffiths, & Benn, 2003).
To protect the environment and develop the company’s capacities within the sphere of sustainable production, Toyota should implement a range of effective strategies in order to respond to the needs of the community. The implementation of the innovative technologies, which can reduce the negative effects on the ecological system of the region, is the first step.
The main strategies, which should be implemented within the company, are the development of the sustainable car design with references to using materials that are more efficient; the improvement of a supply chain; the focus on research and development in the company; and the introduction of technologies orienting to reduce waste and the usage of resources.
The development of the sustainable car design with using of materials that are more efficient is necessary to contribute to the effective usage of resources. According to the principles of Biomimicry research, it is necessary to focus on the development of the more sustainable car design, paying more attention to aerodynamic possibilities of forms and materials.
Furthermore, the usage of innovative technologies should be based on the simple design and environmentally friendly strategies. Toyota is able to shift to the usage of light metals and cast materials in the production of the developed hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles to make the process more sustainable (Innovation for the Automotive Industry, 2012).
The improvement of a supply chain is the next effective strategy, which should be implemented in Toyota Company in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and optimize the usage of resources. From this point, the optimization is necessary for improvement the work of the supply chain and company’s logistics.
Toyota should continue the participation in the Ecostation program in order to reduce possible gas emissions. To achieve the high results, it is important to reduce the transport operations within the supply chain and to use software calculating gas emissions effectively (Toyota: Respect for the planet, 2013).
Furthermore, Toyota should review the strategies in choosing suppliers and focus on those ones who share the company’s sustainability principles. As a result, the main purpose of Toyota in relation to sustainability and environmental protection can be achieved while focusing on effective emission reduction technologies.
Toyota is one of the leading companies within the industry. To preserve the leading positions, the company’s production should be oriented to the constant research and development basing on the implementation of the innovative technologies necessary for reducing environmental pollution and implementing recycling technologies.
The research and development sector of the company should be discussed as the priority for investment because of the necessity to find the new approaches to creating high-quality vehicles responding to the principles of sustainability.
If the long-term goal is the orientation to production of vehicles less reliant on fuel, the short-term goal is the focus on innovations to continue production of hybrid environmentally friendly vehicles (Toyota Sustainability Report 2012, 2013).
At the Toyota plant in Altona, it is necessary to implement technologies to reduce waste and usage of resources. Toyota should implement technologies to guarantee the efficient usage of energy and water, to provide recycling systems for water and waste, and to reduce soil and water contamination (Toyota Australia Sustainability Report 2012, 2013).
The implementation of the innovative technologies is the prolonged and expensive process. That is why, it is necessary to focus on the costs and benefits of the process. The benefits of implementing the innovative technologies are based on the significant reduction of resources use and decrease in waste and emissions.
The Cost/Benefit Analysis for Implementation of Innovative Technologies
Strategic Response
It is important that Toyota Motor Corporation develop innovative strategic sustainability response. There is also the need to address the significance of sustainability changes. This section also addresses the strategies for implementing the proposed sustainability changes.
To this end, Toyota Motor Corporation should implement a Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) strategy, which presents diverse advantages (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011). The approach is crucial to reducing environmental impacts and generating additional economic benefits to the company. GSCM is a strategy that takes into consideration environmental concerns in different company processes.
The strategy ensures that considerations for the environment supersede other concerns in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011). The consideration for environmental issues starts at the point of raw materials extraction, product development, production procedures, distribution of manufactured products to the end users, and end of life management.
Specifically, GSCM incorporate green purchasing, green production, management of manufacturing materials, green distribution systems (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011).
The implementation of GSCM provides opportunities to manage the company performance under crucial sectors including environment, operations, and economy. In addition, GSCM is crucial in enhancing market competition as well as assuring compliance to different regulations.
The proposed GSCM strategy can be implemented in different aspects. It can start with strategies that promote environmental performance in all company processes. The company should adopt International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001. This provides benchmarks for managing environmental issues associated with all processes in the company (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011).
In addition, the company should also adopt ISO 14031. This standard code also provides benchmarks for assessing environmental performance. The adoption of these standards enables the company to set internal mechanisms for managing environmental concerns.
They also provide ways of measuring and evaluating performance at international standards (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011). The Company should also implement pollution control measures and using both environmentally friendly technology and resources in order in order to escalate environmental performance.
The second aspect of GSCM entails the rationalization of the economic performance in all processes in the company. This aspect exemplifies the economic value of the proceeds and represents whether diverse inputs are used effectively in the production processes. The company should focus on ensuring positive economic performance (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011).
This is achieved through putting in place strategies to minimize costs associated with energy use, procurement of materials, waste management and disposal. However, implementing the strategy presents negative economic performance associated with escalating costs for procuring environmentally friendly resources.
The third aspect of GSCM strategy entails considerations for operational performance. It is important to note that operations are at the core of company activities such as production and distribution, which have a direct relationship with the returns on investment. The company can measure operational performance in the way it manages customer satisfaction, in-house practices, and undertakings (Lin, Chen and Nguyen, 2011).
The Company can escalate operational performance through improving product superiority and improving the speed of their delivery to clients. In addition, operational excellence can be achieved through ensuring that the manufacturing plant is working to its full capacity and eliminating or drastically minimizing waste generation.
GSCM Strategy for Toyota Motor Corporation
The Company can also implement other innovative social sustainable programs. The Company can implement a new strategy, which ensures that the product becomes a service to clients (Williams, 2007). This is important to creating lasting relationships with clients. The Company can implement this strategy through developing product-oriented services.
This incorporates selling products to clients together with the services required. This can include the provision of product finance schemes, extending product maintenance contracts, supplying spare parts, and offering information on energy consumption and efficiency (Cusumano, Kahl and Suarez, 2008).
The Company should also implement a more integrated and robust social sustainability programs undertaken in collaboration with local communities. This approach is important because it enables the company to have impacts that are more lasting on the local communities (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2013).
The Company can implement this strategy through empowering the local communities to take the lead in deciding the programs that can improve their livelihoods. The social contribution programs should focus on community empowerment while also escalating the recognition and respect for fundamental human rights.
The Company should also develop a strategy for establishing partnership with different governments in the regions it operates. This is important in ensuring that the Company can establish meaningful partnerships with both state and federal governments (APG, n.d).
The partnerships are important in a business sense. Governments can provide the Company with business opportunities for the supply of their vehicles. Therefore, the partnerships with governments can present opportunities for the Company to escalate its competitive edge in all markets.
References
APG n.d, Corporate Sustainability Management: The Sustainability Change Process, Incremental and Transformational Change, Change Agents and Stakeholders. PDF File. Web.
Cusumano, M., Kahl, S., & Suarez, F. A 2008, Theory of Services in Products Industries. Web.
Dunphy, D., Griffiths, A., & Benn, S 2003, Organizational change for corporate sustainability: A guide for leaders and change agents of the future, USA: Routledge.
Innovation for the Automotive Industry 2012. Web.
Lin, R., Chen, R., & Nguyen, T 2011, “Green supply chain management performance in automobile manufacturing industry under uncertainty,” Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 25, pp. 233 – 245.
Toyota Australia Sustainability Report 2012 2013. Web.
Toyota Motor Corporation 2013, Toyota Australia Sustainability Report 2012. Web.
Toyota Sustainability Report 2012 2013, Web.
Toyota: Respect for the planet 2013. Web.
Williams, A. 2007, “Product Service Systems in the Automobile Industry: Contribution to System Innovation”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 15, pp. 1093 – 1103.