Toyota
From GTwM
The Toyota Motor Corporation, or simply called Toyota is a Japanese multinational corporation and as of April 2007 the world's largest automaker (cars, trucks, buses and robots) and the world's eighth largest company. It is also the most successful and profitable Japanese company ever posting a record corporate profit in 2006.
In the Fortune Global 500, it is the 8th largest company in the world outpacing Ford Motor Company in all listings in terms of revenue and growth and in the 2006 Forbes Global 2000 it is the 12th largest company in the world. It has been consistently gaining market share in the United States, while shrinking sales for Ford and General Motors in the United States.
It owes this position to a reputation for continuous innovation and for building some of the most reliable automobiles in the world. According to current predictions, it is speculated that it will become the world's largest automaker, overtaking General Motors, by producing and selling 9.8 million vehicles in 2008.
History
The Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in September 1933 when Toyoda Automatic Loom created a new division devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Soon thereafter, the division produced its first Type A Engine in 1934, which was used in the first Model A1 passenger car in May 1935 and the G1 truck in August 1935. Production of the Model AA passenger car started in 1936.
Although the Toyota Group is best known today for its cars, it is still in the textile business and still makes automatic looms, which are now fully computerized, and electric sewing machines which are available worldwide.
Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in 1937. Although the founding family name is Toyoda, the company name was changed in order to signify the separation of the founders' work life from home life, to simplify the pronunciation, and to give the company a happy beginning.
During the Pacific War the company was dedicated to truck production for the Imperial Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight on the center of the hood. The war ended shortly before a scheduled Allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi.
Commercial passenger car production started in 1947 with the model SA. Post-war demand was low and this lack of demand was the key business driver for the development of the Toyota Production System which has come to be known as Lean Production. In 1950 a separate sales company Toyota Motor Sales Co. was established (which lasted until July 1982). In April 1956 the Toyopet dealer chain was established. The following year, the Toyota Crown became the first Japanese car to be exported to the United States and Toyota's American and Brazilian divisions, Toyota Motor Sales Inc. and Toyota do Brazil S.A., were also established.
Toyota began to expand in the 1960s with a new research and development facility, a presence in Thailand was established, the 10 millionth model was produced, a Deming Prize and partnerships with Hino Motors and Daihatsu were also established. By the end of the decade, Toyota had established a worldwide presence, as the company had exported its 1 millionth unit.
The expansion continued throughout the 1970s. The company was awarded its first Japanese Quality Control at the start of the decade and a presence in Motorsport was established.
In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged into one company, the Toyota Motor Corporation. Two years later, Toyota joined NUMMI, the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. Toyota then started to establish new brands at the end of the 80s, with the launch of their luxury brand Lexus in 1989.
Toyota have also been at the forefront of different forms of project management often dubbed Lean Project Management.
Toyota tries to avoid getting trapped into prescriptive "toolhead" approaches to management. The Classic production processes as describe in "The Machine that Changed the World" have been continually evolved to respond to new pressures. (see Ongoing change at Toyota). TPS emphasises the importance of valuing learning and adapting over the application of any specific method. In particular the 3rd P in their 4P Model Problem Solving (Philosophy, People, Problem Solving & Process) counters the stagnating tendency.
Current Performance
August 2007 [1] February 2007 [2] [3]
Criticism
In 2001, Toyota's Toyo Trust and Banking merged to form the UFJ, United Financials of Japan, which was accused of corruption by the government for making bad loans to the Yakuza crime syndicates. The UFJ became one of the worst money losing corporations in the world, with Toyota's chairman serving as a director. At the time, the UFJ was one of the largest shareholders of Toyota. As a result of Japan's banking crisis, the UFJ was merged again to become Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
