Employability In The Manufacturing Industry: A Case Study Of Toyota

The Manufacturing Industry of Australia

The concept of employability is a continuous process that is related to the acquisition of knowledge, experience and skills contributing to improve the marketability. It is also related to the potential to achieve and maintain the employment by various shifts in the labor market founded on a basic set of individual characteristics (Audi and Ali 2017).  It can be rather said that there are few actors in the employability of a particular industry. The primary actors of employability are the employer and the employees. Among the secondary actors of employability, the education system, its representatives, the constituents and the legislation are important. As far as the labor markets are concerned, the labor unions are also considered as major actors of employability.  One’s employability consists of many skills or components such as non-technical, technical non-transferable, transferable, metacognitive and context independent (Audi and Ali 2017).  

I hope that I will become an employed graduate in the manufacturing industry as I have gathered relevant skills through my study and experience in this field. I am content with the skills of minimizing the costs of production while maximizing outputs along with thorough marketing skills.  The manufacturing industry of Australia is one of the biggest industries that had peaked in the early 1960 by 25 %, and had dropped below 10 % now. There are many branches of this industry such as food processing, motor vehicle, textile industry and chemical industry too. Throughout the year 2004-05, the manufacturing industry had exported $ 67,400 million and had employed almost 1.1 million people (Audi and Ali 2017). As the year 2000 came to an end, more than $3.3 billion was spent on the manufacturing industry in which 40 % went to the textile, footwear and clothing industry (Pfeiffer et al. 2016).  The Automotive industry of Australia in which I am interested the most. There were four of the giant producers in Australia such as Mitsubishi, Holden, Ford and Toyota.

• For the international automakers, the Chinese market is growing the competition. The next decade is expected to bring the challenge as the high double –digit growth of sales can be replaced by complex combination of the low growth(Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017). The risk is there as the rapid expansion of china, its foreign investment and the anticipated growth, the capacity of auto-manufacturing is outpacing both the demand and production.
• The next challenge is the instrumentalism of the transformational forces of in the automotive industry(Audi and Ali 2017). The connected cars functions as the communication hubs but also creates few market uncertainties.
• The next challenge is regarding the opportunities of growth in the scenario of increasing tough competition. The challenge for the industry is to make the choice of the right technology and powertrain under the context of rapid societal preferences and changing regulatory ambience.
• The fourth challenge is about the new powertrains and new regulations which balances the demands of technology and the government. The government is putting new regulations on the emissions of CO2 (Pfeiffer et al. 2016).
• The globalization and the consolidation of the platforms have posed new challenges. The new automakers are being compelled to reshape their strategies according to the global consumer and their changing needs. The new mega-platforms have taken a holistic approach towards consolidation after stretching beyond the coverage of segments.

• The first change is the acceleration of the pace of disrupting innovation. Since innovation is challenging the pre- established principles, the auto-makers are collaborating at various levels. The automakers are going beyond the ecosystem(Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017).
• The digitalization across the value chain also has been occurring in the market. The expansion of data has impacted the whole opportunity of the industry(Audi and Ali 2017). The automotive industry is leveraging their access to the vehicle data in order to drive progressive innovation.
• The rapid innovation is driving the new technologies to threaten the operational knowledge. The aging workforce in the industry is facing issues with the advancement of technologies in the market. The lack of organization in the infrastructure is causing employee turnover rates increase.
• The recent recession and the political tensions such as Brexit and the dissent with the EU have caused the political scenario to change. It is likely to spark new measures of protectionism for the innovation in technologies and the business services.
• The corporate social responsibility and the global supply chain has become more important and visible for the business partners and the customers.

The selected company in the automotive industry is Toyota. The company was founded in the year 1937 (Toyota.com 2019). It is a Japanese-based multinational automotive manufacturer which manufactures trucks, cars, motorcycles under different brands (Powell 2017). The brands include the luxury brand like Lexus and the Millennial-aimed brand Scion. The mission of the company is to stay always at the top of the automotive industry (Audi and Ali 2017). However, the Toyota company is also involved in the area of robotics and handling of material. The brand was stalled from the recovery of the worldwide recession that began in the year 2008, through a series of natural disasters and recalls in all the production centers (Pfeiffer et al. 2016). In the year 2013, the revenues of the company again surged back. The company faced many disasters through the last five years such as the air-bag inflators but it held the position of the most valuable brand in the world by the year 2016(Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017).

An Overview of Toyota

It defeated the strong competitors like the Mercedes-Benz, Honda and BMW. In the past year, the company reported to hold revenues of around 29.4 trillion Yen.

The factors that have impacted in the past five years:

The Toyota Motor Corporation has made various strides in the market of electric vehicle by holing the position of the largest automobile company that offers a hybrid car in the line (Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017). The company started providing the hybrid option for its other models after the grand success of Toyota Prius. The other models such as Avalon and Camry received the hybrid option (Powell 2017). The most updated reports show that Toyota has received higher customer satisfaction ratings than it had received in the year 2006(Audi and Ali 2017). In the year 2017, the sales of global electric vehicles crossed one million and many countries are emphasizing on increasing the number of electric cars on their streets (Pfeiffer et al. 2016). Recently, China is on the top holding 50% of the market share leaving behind the ultra -developed countries of Europe and the U.S(Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017). Hence, the car manufacturers are being concerned about bringing the electric car models in the market having bigger plans for the future. In the year 2017, the highest market share was occupied by the BJEV EC180/200 with 6%, followed by the Tesla Model S and the Toyota Prius Gen-2 (both 4%).

The employability

The above statistics shows the number of employees from the year 2012 up to the year 2018. The company employed almost 369, 124 people in the previous year. The company rank as one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. The bran sold almost 10.4 million vehicles in the financial year 2018(Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017). The main competitors of the company are Renault –Nissan alliance, General Motors and Volkswagen. The competitors had less number of employees as compared to Toyota (Pfeiffer et al. 2016). The General Motors had 180, 000 employees and Volkswagen had 642, 000 in the year 2017, when Toyota had only 369,000 employees (Audi and Ali 2017). Hence, it can be deduced that the company has earned the position of one of the best automotive companies having strong employability (Powell 2017). The company is growing day by day and will be needing huge mass of eligible people for the manufacturing of Toyota products. It is a great opportunity for the fresh graduates to get associated with the market goliath in the automotive industry.

Recent Developments in the Labor Market

• Toyota is considered to be a mature company and it is important for the investors that they place their attention on the factors which can increase the company risks(Powell 2017). In the case of Toyota, there are certain risk factors which can affect the future estimates and impact on the valuation multiples that the company is looking forward to (Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017).
• The currency fluctuation was handled well by the company in the year 2016 by expanding the margins and posting higher Japanese yen revenues. However, the coming year prospects do not seem that favorable for Toyota.
• The investors must observe the movement of yen in the coming years along with the Euro and the US dollar (Audi and Ali 2017). The sharp appreciation of Yen over Euro and Dollar is likely to hurt the profitability of the company. It can also hinder the future growth
• The stagnation in the home market can also impact the company’s developments, operations and earnings. In the home market which is in Japan, the company has experienced growth only up to 9 % since the year 2010 (Höpfl, Hamilton and Brannan 2017).  The downturn in demand in the US market can hinder the revenue prospects of the company.

I have conducted an investigative interview with the marketing manager of Toyota to complete this particular part of assessment. The aim of the interview was to receive first-hand information about the labour market change related trends. According to the interviewee, labour market is the nominal market where the workers find paying jobs, the employers find the eligible and efficient workers. It is also a place where the wage rates are determined. The labor markets can be national/ local and even international. The larger labor markets are made up of the interactions between different labor markets with different skills, qualifications and different geographical locations. The labor market depends on the conditions of employment, the job locations, the levels of competition and the exchange of information.

As he was asked to share his views on the factors of change in the labour market, he pointed out four of the key changes which are shaping the current labour market. Firstly, he pointed towards the shifting demographics and the dynamic workforces.  The issue of stagnant and shrinking workforces is drawing the abundance of labor to an end. He also informed that the working age population of China will become 65 to the maximum rates. The labour shortage is forcing the employers to think differently regarding the sourcing. Hence, the employers are better emphasizing on the young people, women, disabled people, minorities and migrants.

Secondly, he also informed about the rise of individual choices. Since there are millions of job posting around, there is a new trend of not sticking to one kind of job for the entire life. The goal of today’s generation is to become employable, developing the skills, experiencing variety and gather expertise to move on not considering about the employer. It has enabled them to have greater flexibility and choice to enrich their careers. This new workforce trend has force the employers to tailor the wages according to the skills and not according to the tenure. This individual choice is posing issues for the labor market as it has increased the workforce mobility.

The technological revolution has also impacted the sector up to greater extent. The companies have shorter cycles of business with tough global competition. Although few industries are free from disruption, the automation and the artificial intelligence has threatened the current labor market. Notably, the incorporation of the advanced technologies has resolved many of the labour market issues.

Factors Impacting Labor Market Changes

The client sophistication and the dawn of data is also equally influential. the big data used by the organizations are impacting on the recruitment, retention and the supply chain of the company.  The goals is to have greater productivity , and talent pool. The digitalization of the world has brought everything at the fingertips. Hence the companies are looking forward to find the true talent. In order to address the difficulties in speeding up with the changing technology, the companies are outsourcing the IT management. This in turn is creating new efficiencies and at the same time allowing the cyber security providers to monitor the security attacks. Lastly, he has been optimistic about the labor markets which are struggling today and it is difficult to predict the environment. The period is likely to bring solution and opportunities for the growth. The state of transition is never easy but can give birth to newer scopes.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that labor market analysis and development is a vast subject and there are always ups and downs in the process. The larger labor markets are made up of the interactions between different labor markets with different skills, qualifications and different geographical locations. The labor market depends on the conditions of employment, the job locations, the levels of competition and the exchange of information. The labor market of Toyota has also gone through various transitions but now has gathered all its strength to become one of the largest automotive company of the world. The shifting demographics and the dynamic workforces, rise of individual choices, technological revolution, client sophistication and the dawn of data are the influential factors.

Reference

Audi, M. and Ali, A., 2017. Socio-Economic Development, Demographic Changes and Total Labor Productivity in Pakistan: A Co-Integrational and Decomposition Analysis.

Höpfl, H., Hamilton, L. and Brannan, M., 2017. A gendered perspective on learning to labour. Culture and Organization, 23(2), pp.85-94.

Pfeiffer, T., Bexte, D., Dolch, E., Sandalj, M., Treiber, E. and Wilms-Posen, N., 2016. Measuring gaps and weighing benefits. Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut für Agrar-und Gartenbauwissenschaften.

Powell, E.T., 2017. The Evolution of the Money Market 1385-1915: An Historical and Analytical Study of the Rise and Development of Finance as a Centralised, Co-ordinated Force. Routledge.

Schneider, T., 2015. Development of Market Entry Strategies: An Initial Blueprint for Consulting Processes.

Scholz, L.H., 2018. Big Data Is Not Big Oil: On Analogical Reasoning, New Technologies, and Law. Georgetown Law Journal Online, Forthcoming, pp.18-12.

Statista.com (2019). Topic: Toyota. [online] www.statista.com. Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/1893/toyota/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].

Toyota.com (2019). New Cars, Trucks, SUVs & Hybrids | Toyota Official Site. [online] Toyota.com. Available at: https://www.toyota.com/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2019].