Models and Practices in the Motor Vehicle Industry – contrasting cases from the Portuguese experience

This paper presents and discusses two case studies in the Portuguese motor vehicle industry – Salvador Caetano’s Ovar Industrial Division (SCOID), a ‘Brownfield site’ with minority Toyota ownership; and Autoeuropa, a ‘Greenfield site’ wholly owned by Volkswagen. Basically, it considers the scope for the meaningful application of ‘Japanese’ organisational methods in these contexts, focusing on the human factor – i.e. as close as possible to the actors on the shop floor. After providing some insights into the Portuguese automotive industry, it profiles both SCOID and Autoeuropa and assesses each of their methods of work, within this balance of commitment between global and local. The main findings reveal the lag that can exist between theoretical models (namely those following a geographical criteria) and the actual practice carried out by manufacturers when tested outside their point of geographical origin.Motor vehicle industry, Lean Production, hybridisation, work organisation, case studies, Toyota , Volkswagen , Portugal

Reorienting Kaizen Activities at Toyota : Kaizen, Production Efficiency, and Humanization of Work

One of the widely held opinions about Japanese firms’ high performance suggests that Japanese employees, organized in teams, are making kaizen (continuous improvements) in their own jobs through quality circles or other initiatives such as a suggestion system. But who are these employees? They would have to be blue−collar workers in the Western perception, but the part of their contribution in improving productivity and price cost does not seem exceed 10% of all improvements obtained. Who then brings about the major part of these improvements? Are the kaizen activities carried out without having relation to the company’s profit strategy? If the employees have an objective in their kaizen activities, who provides the objectives? What do these objectives consist of? How are their activities managed? These questions invite us to inquire about a whole management system of kaizen at Toyota Production System, considered as the basic model of “Lean Production”. But Toyota reoriented its organized kaizen activities toward the construction of more humanized production system during 1990s. This paper then shows this reorientation and the new direction by showing the case of Tahara No.1 plant. Through these discussions, I want to emphasize the importance of organized kaizen activities that group leaders, chief leaders and engineers are carrying out, and also the fact that their activities are now centered not only upon productivity increase but also upon the humanization of work

Ready, Steady, Go: Toyota\u27s Advertising in America, 1958-1979

The objective of this thesis is to determine the marketing strategy of Toyota Motor Corporation in America and place these strategies into their historical context. The advertisements will ultimately tie in with trends inside the United States, as well as the development of the company as an international business

Guanxi, government and Corporate reputation in China: Lessons for international companies

The purpose of this paper is to explore corporate reputation in the transitional Chinese context, and to examine the impact of guanxi on reputation management. China remains a hierarchical guanxi-based society despite the rapid transition to a market-led economy. The decentralised business environment today is more complicated than that in the pre-reform era. As reputation is relationship based, guanxi is an important form of reputation capital. Corporate reputation in China is all about managing relationships with key stakeholders, the most important being the government. Government at the top level is crucial for reputation-building and deal-making. Given the idiosyncratic market conditions and differences in culture, MNCs have to adopt a localisation strategy in corporate communications, showing due respect for the local culture

Development and influence of the weight of cars and motorcycles

Tato bakalářská práce obsahuje popis historického vývoje hmotnosti automobilů a motocyklů. V první kapitole je popsána dynamika automobilů a vliv hmotnosti na dynamické vlastnosti vozu. Pro lepší popsání vývoje je dále rozebrán vývoj hmotnosti u několika typů vozidel. Historický vývoj a popis současných technologií slouží jako podklad k hlavnímu výstupu práce, tedy k nastínění budoucího vývoje, jež je obsahem poslední kapitoly.This bachelor's thesis contains the description of the evolution of weight of automobiles and motorcycles. The first chapter contains a description of automobile dynamics and the influence of weight on dynamic properties of a vehicle. To describe the evolution of weight better, there are more detailed descriptions of weight evolutions of certain types of vehicles. The research of historical evolution and technology used today serves as the basis for the main outcome of this thesis, which is a prediction of the future development. This is the content of the last chapter.

McHugh v. Reid Clerk\u27s Record Dckt. 40886

https://digitalcommons.law.uidaho.edu/idaho_supreme_court_record_briefs/5308/thumbnail.jp

Factores de participação em comunidades de marca em Portugal

Mestrado em GestãoO presente trabalho propõe-se a investigar os antecedentes da participação nas comunidades de marca em Portugal. Em termos metodológicos, levou-se a cabo uma revisão da literatura que serviu de base à construção do modelo conceptual em estudo e ao questionário aplicado a membros de três comunidades de marca portuguesas, apesar de as marcas que estão no seu cerne não terem esta nacionalidade. Os resultados mostraram que os factores que mais influenciam a participação nas comunidades de marca em Portugal são o empenho comprometido, a relação com os outros membros e as normas que se revelaram como exercendo um efeito negativo na variável dependente referida.This study aims to investigate the antecedents of participation in brand communities in Portugal. In methodological terms, it took out a full review of the literature that underpinned the construction of the conceptual model in study and the questionnaire, that be administered to members of three brand Portuguese communities, although the brands that are in your heart that nationality did not. The results showed that the factors influencing participation in community brand in Portugal are committed engagement, relationship to other members and the norms which have been shown as having a negative effect on the dependent variable above

“Gestión gerencial de mantenimiento para mejorar la disponibilidad de los equipos en la empresa Corporación Petrolera SAC. en proyectos petroleros para la selva peruana”

En la presente investigación se ha aplicado un modelo de gestión gerencial de mantenimiento en la empresa Corporación Petrolera SAC, se trata de una empresa contratista de servicios, de construcción, de logística y de transporte, en los proyectos petroleros ubicados en la selva peruana, con el objetivo de garantizar la mejora de la disponibilidad mecánica de sus equipos en operación. El clima variable (lluvias frecuentes, calor intenso) y la ubicación geográfica (selva virgen, lejanía de la operación) reflejan la complejidad del contexto operacional de los proyectos en la selva Peruana. Estas condiciones extremas perjudican la performance operacional de los equipos, afectando su disponibilidad mecánica. La investigación se desarrolló en el departamento de mantenimiento, del año 2013 al 2017, periodo durante el cual la gerencia estableció un modelo de gestión gerencial de mantenimiento, aplicando un plan estratégico basado en tres pilares de gestión: talento humano, procesos y tecnología; los cuales, alineados con herramientas estratégicas de gestión de clase mundial, como técnicas de mantenimiento, matriz FODA, técnica de la cinco S, metodologías de kaizen, empowerment, benchmarking y auditoría, se logró el incremento de la disponibilidad mecánica de los equipos. Se concluye que a través de la aplicación de un plan estratégico y el desarrollo de metodologías de gestión empresarial así como el respaldo de la alta dirección, se logró cumplir los objetivos destinado a mejorar la disponibilidad mecánica de los equipos.Tesi

Using Childhood Memory to Gain Insight into Brand Meaning

In this article, the authors introduce the concept that people\u27s earliest and defining product memories can be used as a projective tool to help managers more fully understand consumers\u27 relationships to their products. The authors use a study on three generations of automobile consumers to illustrate how these memories symbolize the consumer-brand relationship and how they can be used to gain insights into brand meaning. The findings indicate that people\u27s earliest and defining experiences have an important influence on current and future preferences in predictable ways across the consumer life cycle. These memory experiences are symbolic to the consumer and represent a new lens for viewing brand meaning, which complements the toolbox of extant research methods. The authors provide details about this technique for managers who are searching for methods that recognize that consumers coproduce brand meanings

Models and Practices in the Motor Vehicle Industry – contrasting cases from the Portuguese experience

This paper presents and discusses two case studies in the Portuguese motor vehicle industry – Salvador Caetano’s Ovar Industrial Division (SCOID), a ‘Brownfield site’ with minority Toyota ownership; and Autoeuropa, a ‘Greenfield site’ wholly owned by Volkswagen. Basically, it considers the scope for the meaningful application of ‘Japanese’ organisational methods in these contexts, focusing on the human factor – i.e. as close as possible to the actors on the shop floor. After providing some insights into the Portuguese automotive industry, it profiles both SCOID and Autoeuropa and assesses each of their methods of work, within this balance of commitment between global and local. The main findings reveal the lag that can exist between theoretical models (namely those following a geographical criteria) and the actual practice carried out by manufacturers when tested outside their point of geographical origin