Interesting things: Toyota

Every Tuesday, you can read some interesting things from around the Web about the auto industry.

Some interesting things about Toyota

Toyota Motor Corporation was started in 1937 by Kiichiri Toyoda, under the encouragement of the Japanese government, which needed domestic vehicles.

Toyota headquarters are located in Toyota, Aichi and Bunkyo, Tokyo, in Japan.

Toyota is the world’s largest seller of cars in the first part of 2007, for the first time in over 75 years when General Motors is not the first.

Toyota, though world renowned for the cars, is still involved in textile business, making automatic looms and electric sewing machines.

Toyota is one of the companies that started the “Japanese invasion” in the auto market in the United States with small and fuel efficient cars. Among other companies there are Honda and Nissan.

Toyota produces one of the most renowned trucks/SUVs in the world: Toyota Land Cruiser. Another well-known car is, of course, the best selling hybrid car: Prius.

In 2002, Toyota entered Formula 1. The drivers for the 2007 edition are Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher.

The Toyota production system:

1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals
2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to surface
3. Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction
4. Level out the workload
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time
6. Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment
7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu)
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly
14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement

Source: Wikipedia

Toyota philosophy: Zeronise consists in reducing pollution, traffic deaths and road congestion.

If you know any more interesting things about Toyota, please, let us all know by writing them in the comments below.