Good Research Proposal On A Case Of Toyota – Integration Business Information Practices In Supply Chain Management Practices

Introduction

With the passage of time constant development and dynamic global conditions have persuaded business entities to attain greater competitive advantages. Suppliers of the organization are perceived as representatives of the performance of the organization. Hence, the integration of suppliers of Multinational organization is one of the crucial aspects that have to be adequately dealt. The organizations face greater problems to manage their suppliers and distributors. Hence, the integration process of the supplier needs to be effectively managed. Supply chain management is one of the important areas in which the strategic collaboration of the suppliers and service providers can allow firms to achieve competitive advantages (Bowers ox 2013). The use of business information system for supply chain management improves flow of communication with suppliers and organization .
The present paper will illustrate about the case study of Toyota’s supply chain management and integration of information system to improve supplier’s management. Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the leading Japanese automotive manufacturing. The company was initially established in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda and it’s headquarter is in Aichi, Japan. The company is one of the largest automobile manufacturing companies with regards to market capitalization. Toyota is one of the leading multinational organizations and has different manufacturing units across the globe. The core competency for Toyota has been crucial with respect to managing its relation with its suppliers in order to improve its overall efficiency. The company has suppliers across the globe. Hence, supply chain management for multinational companies has been an issue. This study will consider a wide range of theories relating to topic.

Research Objectives

The main objective of this report is to highlight the problems faced by the organizations. Hence, a brief discussion related to the issues highlighted would be presented. The research problem is addressed reviewing past researches.
The primary aim of this report is to provide solution to the supply chain management issue of Toyota through conducting extensive literature review. Hence, research questions and objectives have been outline in the paper that is discussed through conducting literature.

Research Questions

1. What supply chain management system has impact on the profitability of the business?
2. What affects the supply chain management system castes on flow of communication between the suppliers, vendors and the organization?
3. What impact does supply chain management system cast on costs and quality of the company?
4. Does information system in supply chain management practices of Toyota creates sustainable relation between the suppliers, vendors and company?

Research Hypothesis

1.

H0: There is a significant relationship between supply chain management and profitability.

2.
H0: The Supply chain management has a significant relationship with flow of communication between suppliers and the vendors of the organization.
3.

H0: There is a significant relationship between supply chain management and costs and quality of the company.

Adapted Research Approach
The adopted research approach for the study is based on the research objectives and aims. Keeping in the mind, the research objectives the researcher will make use of quantitative research approach to conduct the study. The reason quantitative research approach is adopted is because; it allows the researcher to evaluate quantitative information and data that is obtained from the secondary and primary sources. The research will follow the deductive approach and would be descriptive in nature. The researcher aims to describe and analyze the supply chain issues faced by Toyota and to suggest the steps to be followed to overcome the issues. The deductive approach will allow the researcher to formulate and design the hypothesis that are later tested using the research techniques. “A deductive approach is concerned with developing a hypothesis (or hypotheses) based on existing theory, and then designing a research strategy to test the hypothesis” (Wilson, 2010, p.7). The researcher will make use of close-ended questionnaires to obtain primary information about the supply chain management of the company.

The following steps will be followed in the current deductive approach:

Identification of an existing theory.
Designing the hypothesis to test the theory.
Data collection for testing purposes and applying suitable research techniques to get the results.
Finally the hypothesis would be accepted or rejected by analyzing the results.
Research Strategy
Since the study particularly focuses on Toyota Motor company’s supply chain management practices and information system. Hence, case study approach will be implied to conduct the study, as it allows interpreting the events that influence the performance of the organization.

Research technique

The research technique that will be carried out for this research is the Survey Strategy which includes designing a questionnaire and testing the responses on SPSS to gain the results that will be further interpreted and discussed in detail. The information will be gathered from the primary (questionnaires) and secondary sources (literature review). The questionnaire will be distributed among the employees working in supply chain management department of Toyota Motor. The questionnaire would be designed to identify and investigate the impacts of supply chain management on the Company's performance. The core objective behind using the questionnaire analysis is to gather large set of opinions of the employees of the company.
The questionnaire will be self-administered and all the variables related to supply chain management will be designed and interpreted in the form of questions. The questionnaire will have different sections each section will relate to a specific variable. The researcher will make use of mailed questionnaires that will be emailed to the supply chain managers and employees working at Toyota Motor in the different regions of the world. The reason mailed questionnaires are used is because of convenience and easy access to the information of the employees working at Toyota Motors. The respondents will be provided 5 options and one would be selected (likert scale). The options would be ranked from 1-5 and would represent 1: Strongly Disagree, 2: Somewhat Disagree, 3: neither Agree nor Disagree, 4: Somewhat Agree and 5: Strongly Agree. The questionnaire research using likert scale is supported by this research (Chadha & Gagandeep, 2013). The researcher used the questionnaire strategy, Likert scale approach to find out the impact on quality management through the supply chain management. In the current research the researcher will try to find out the factors (variables) related to the supply chain management that have an impact the performance of Toyota. The responses of the questionnaire will be gathered and further these responses are to be tested using statistical methods.
The questionnaire will constitute of two portions, firstly the personal information of the respondent and secondly the questions related to the variables will be addressed. The researcher will be physically present at the venue in order to answer the queries. The researcher's presence is necessary as most of the respondents will intentionally answer the questions according to their judgments, but if the researcher is present the respondents will ask for the questions that may confuse them.

Population

The population constitutes of 500 employees of Toyota Company. All the employees that are currently the part of Toyota Company are selected as the population. The time constraints will not allow the researcher to carry out the research with all the employees of Toyota, therefore the overall population will be minimized to restricted respondents (100). 100 employees will be selected to respond to the questionnaire.

Sampling Design

For the implementation of the survey approach (questionnaire), 100 current employees of the company will be selected randomly. Documented approval will be obtained from the Human Resource Managers and the upper management of the company.
The selection of the respondents would be done using random sampling technique. This technique enables the researcher to choose from a large set of respondents, this process is also helpful in minimizing the time. The survey would be conducted without replacement; this means that a person once selected cannot be the part of the selection again.

Sampling Technique

Random sampling (without replacement) will be used. This sampling technique is considered to be the purest and simplest probability sampling technique. All the members of the population set have the chance of being selected as the respondent. If a large population size is selected it becomes impossible for the researcher to identify all the members and therefore the sample selected becomes more biased. The sampling technique allows the researcher to identify a smaller portion of members from a large group/set and also minimizes the time required for the survey.

Estimates of Sample Size

The estimates of the sample size can be calculated by a simple formula:
Selected sample / overall population = 100 / 500
= 0.2 * 100 = 20%.

20% of the employees are the part of the survey.

Implementation Plan
On the basis of the information gathered from the study, the findings that will be obtained can be implied on the other multinational automobile companies. The information obtained from the study can be implied specifically on supply chain department of the companies.

Suggested Questions

Keeping in view, the research objectives of the study the suggested questions to carry out the study are as follow:
Which supply chain system is suitable for the company according its organizational structure.
How the choices of supply chain systems allows the company to regulate and control its performance measures.

Reference List

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