A brief history of ToyotaIt is almost unbelievable that a loom-making company could have turned itself into one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world, but that's precisely what Toyota has done over the past seventy years. And it still sells looms. With nearly ten million cars produced in 2007 alone, and the UK one of their key markets, there's a good chance that if you're not driving a Toyota now, you will at some point. Below is a brief history of the development of this huge company. Beginnings of the Brand
Sakichi Toyoda patented an automatic loom, the world's first, in 1918, and founded the company that would go on to become Toyota. The reason for using Toyota rather than Toyoda as the name of the company is that the family was superstitious, and preferred to use a name that could be written in eight strokes, a lucky number in Japan.
When the loom patent was sold in 1929, Sakichi Toyoda invested the proceeds in automobile research, a project led by his son Kichiro. Their first cars went into production in 1936, and the Toyota Motor Corporation was founded the year after. Before ten years had passed, the new corporation had built its 100,000th car, and was ready to expand beyond its home country. Beyond Japan
By the 1950s, Toyota had begun exporting cars to countries in Latin America and South-East Asia. Its attempt to break into the US market in 1957 failed to meet American tastes, but its approaches to Europe in the 1960s found better responses. By the 1970s, the company had produced its ten-millionth car, and these cars' low petrol consumption gave Toyota its entry into the American market, and from here the company had created a firm base from which to grow into the giant it is today. Not only the producer of popular models such as the Corolla and Prius, it owns the luxury brand Lexus and the innovative Scion marque, who launched their xB car in Second Life, becoming the first car company to launch its cars in the virtual world.
Just-in-time
Taiichi Ohno, one of Toyota's executives, is thought of as the father of the Just-In-Time System, a highly streamlined method of production that made Toyota incredibly efficient. At its most fundamental, it teaches that any expenditure on storage is wasted expenditure; all parts of a manufacturing process should arrive just in time to be used and passed on to the next stage. It has grown to become a popular production system throughout Japan, and is used all over the industrial world. In predictable systems, savings on money and time can be incredible, but it is a system that can struggle with unpredictable demands.
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