Final answer:
Toyota focused on improving customer satisfaction, employee decision-making, supplier partnerships, and instituted a culture of continuous quality improvement in their business model, aligning with broader industry shifts towards efficiency and global competitiveness.
Step-by-step explanation:
After facing severe challenges due to recalls, Toyota pivoted towards improving their overall business model focusing on key areas such as customer satisfaction, increasing employee participation in decision making, enhancing supplier partnerships, and fostering a culture of continuous quality improvement. This approach is part of the Toyota Production System, which integrates just-in-time delivery to minimize inventory costs, ensure better quality control, and prompt identification of faults. Additionally, the shift requires suppliers to be close to the main manufacturing plants to enable swift delivery, leading to local economic impacts and labor considerations.
Toyota's efforts were paralleled by larger industry trends towards globalization and competitive pressure, pushing American car manufacturers to increase the quality and efficiency of their products. The automotive industry has witnessed a dynamic shift, partly due to external pressures such as the increase in competition from global manufacturers, ranging from East Asian to European carmakers, challenging the oligopoly of American companies and fostering innovation.
Ultimately, these strategies emphasize the importance of a holistic approach to manufacturing that accounts for various stakeholders including regulators, assembly line workers, and suppliers, and that keeps in sight the changing consumer preferences and market dynamics.