“The car in front of you is almost always a Toyota” is a common adage used to depict the company’s global dominance in the automobile manufacturing industry. The company was founded by Japanese engineer, Sakichi Toyoda.
In 1924, Toyoda established Toyoda Automatic Loom, Type G, Japan’s first mechanical weaving machine. These machines were the company’s first products.
two years later in 1926, he founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works – which specialised in the sale and marketing of automatic weaving machines.
Full-scale production of Toyoda’s new Type G automatic loom began in 1927, and capacity quickly rose from 300 to 1,000 units per month.
Toyoda would then sell the patent for his G-type machine to British firm Platt Brothers of Oldham, which in 1929 agreed to pay £100,000 for the rights to use Toyoda’s patented technology and therefore protect its key markets. He gave the money to his son.
It is Toyoda’s son, Kiichiro Toyoda who invested in automobiles – Toyota Motor Corporation. He recruited a small but passionate team of engineers and industry experts to assist him in this venture.
The automobile wing was under Toyoda Automatic Loom Works and produced its first car in 1935 using Ford and Chevrolet parts. The same year, it also produced its first truck – the 1935 Toyoda Model G1.
Assisted by the introduction of automotive manufacturing laws in 1936, Toyoda’s new business was booming and had outgrown its position as an offshoot of its parent company. So in April 1937, the automobile department of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works was legally registered as the Toyota Motor Company Limited (now Toyota Motor Corporation).
The rebrand to Toyota was intended to make the name easy to pronounce.
Operations at the Koromo Plant, the company’s new dedicated production facility, began in November 1938 with a staff of 5,000 employees and a production capacity of 2,000 units per month.
Although the layout and workflow was based on large-scale production facilities in the USA, Kiichiro streamlined the process with an innovative, just-in-time production system that provided the early foundation for today’s Toyota Production System.
During the war, Toyota focused on the supply of cars and trucks for military use. During that period,
Kiichiro took on personal projects developing electric vehicle storage batteries, diesel engines and alternative fuel technologies.
The establishment of Toyota’s new and highly efficient automated production method – now adopted worldwide as the Toyota Production System – initially targeted a doubling of the company’s existing capacity, which would take production from 1542 to 3,000 units per month.
By the end of 1956, Toyota was making some 5,000 vehicles each month. The 1955 Toyopet Crown was Toyota’s first domestically developed passenger car.
The Toyopet Crown was also the first Japanese car to use independent front suspension, and the first Japanese car to be exported to the United States.
To this date, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works continues to operate though overshadowed by Toyota automobiles’ immense success.
