Toyota reported record sales and profits for the period ending Sept. 30th. The extraordinary results cam after strenuous cost cutting and marketing effort by the Tokyo-based auto maker. The auto makers net profit jumped 11.4 percent from a year earlier 584 billion yen, or form 153 yen per share to 176 yen per share. Also Toyota Consolidated posted a record high 1.16 trillion yen of net profit for the business year ending March 31st 2004. Toyota said that cost-cutting efforts and marketing boosted net profits by 260 billion and 70 billion yen respectively.
With such phenomenal results from cost-cutting and marketing, American manufacturers must be wondering what marvelous cost cutting maneuvers have the Japanese invented now. If anyone is wondering why American jobs being outsourcing is such an attraction for American businesses, this is a prime example why. With consolidated net profit of 1.16 trillion yen in a single business year, American businesses must able to cut cost wherever possible. There hasn't been this large of a increase in Toyota's implementation of JIT, and other cost cutting manuevers of the 1980's.
This was found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6380984/.
3 comments:
Cost cutting doesn't necessicarily mean that there are layoffs that are occuring, Toyota may have found more efficent production methods.
Leave it the Japanese automakers to once again out-do the boys in Detroit. Toyota is a good company and they are known for reliable, quality cars. Ford and GM could learn a lot from the Japanese and I'm sure that they have many such consultants on their payrolls.
-1 on Bryce (I'm going to count the two consecutive comments as one).
This is all good for a ManEc class. One of the great things for a manager about cutting costs is that you are not at anyone else's mercy - if you cut costs, you reap the benefits.
One strategic advantage for Toyota of cutting costs now is that demand is so high for everything worldwide (this is the best year for the world economy in 30 years). This means they have a big fat profit cushion that they can use to help workers maintain workers' morale in other ways.
As to Peter_Parker's question about outsourcing, there is no data on where jobs are outsourced to. Outsourcing has been around for a long time, but it wasn't on anyone's radar screens for a long time, so it isn't measured well.
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