International Business: Toyota

Company Overview

Company Name
Toyota Motor Corporation

Head Office
Toyota, Aichi, Japan

Established
1933 by Kiichiro Toyoda

Chairman
Fujio Cho

President
Katsuaki Watanabe

Revenue
USD$173 Billion (2005)

Total Number of Employees
285,977 (March 2006)

Subsidiaries
Toyota Financial Services, Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., Hino Motors, Ltd., DENSO, Toyota Industries

Industry
Automobile manufacturing, Financial services, Biotechnology

Products
Toyota, Lexus and Scion

Slogan
Toyota Moving Forward (It’s time to Move Forward)

Global position
8th largest organization
2nd largest in automobile industry

Toyota Motor Corporation, a Japanese MNC, or widely known as Toyota markets vehicles to over 170 countries. Toyota’s automotive business, including sales finance, accounts for more than 90% of the company’s total sales. In March 2006, Accountancy Age reported that Toyota (fiscal years ended 31 March) had already sold almost 8 million vehicles worldwide. Diagram below shows Toyota annual global production from 2002 to 2006. Annual sales had been climbing steadily with the latest global sales hitting at 7,974,000 units (Toyota, 2006).

Diagram 1: Toyota’s Annual Vehicle Production. Fiscal years ended March 31.

Source: Toyota Financial Highlights

Toyota Motor Corporation operates under the basic principle of ‘kaizen’. The Japanese word ‘Kaizen’ means continuous improvement. In step with kaizen, Toyota Production System (TPS) was established to monitor the continuous improvement Toyota has in mind for their corporate expansion. The essence of Toyota’s production control system is simply focused on to provide the best quality, lowest cost and shortest lead time through the elimination of all non-manufacturing wastes. This is instilled in all aspects of Toyota’s production (Toyota Vision and Philosophy, 2006).

Back in the 1950s, Toyota’s industrial production was substantially below its pre-war peak at only 10,000 trucks.... [continues]

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