Sustained Innovation and Creativity - Toyota Industries Corporation

Vehicle BusinessAdvantages as a Compact and MidsizeAutomobile ManufacturerToyota Industries plays a vital role in Toyota MotorCorporation’s (TMC) car production as one of the vehicleassembly arms within the Toyota Group. Our Vehicle Businessprimarily assembles compact and midsize automobiles underconsignment from TMC. At present, we manufacture twomodels, the RAV4 for Europe and the United States and theVitz (Yaris outside Japan). Our Vehicle Business has won highacclaim for its top-class quality and quick production launchwithin the Toyota Group. Moreover, the adoption of theToyota Production System ensures the thorough elimination ofall waste from production operations and that our plants areutilized with the utmost effi ciency.The Vehicle Business’s automobile assembly operationsdate back to the Publica (van) and Corolla (van) in thelate 1960s and early 1970s. Based on the success of theseoperations, the full-scale assembly business commenced withthe Starlet at the Nagakusa Plant in 1978. We subsequentlystarted manufacturing the Vitz (Yaris outside Japan), thesuccessor vehicle of the Starlet, in 1999. The fi rst-generationVitz sparked an expansion in the compact car market inJapan and was later recognized as a global-standardcompact car. Re-introduced in Japan in February 2005 afterundergoing a full model change, the second-generationVitz integrates the most advanced safety features andenvironmental technologies, offering the highest level ofquality.The RAV4 also underwent a full model change and wasre-introduced in November 2005. The newest RAV4 is a trulyglobal model, offering an even wider interior, high drivingperformance and world-class environmental and safetyperformance.Highly Effi cient Pre-Production ProcessTo launch production of the new Vitz and RAV4 in a shorttime period, we conducted a sweeping review of our entirepre-production process that included reducing the burdenof the actual pre-production process as well as equalizingpeak burdens. Along with these measures, we removedmany barriers among relevant manufacturing, productiontechnology and quality control departments. By eliminatingsuch obstacles as communication gaps—an impedimentto speed—and delayed decision-making, we successfullyimplemented concurrent engineering whereby everyoneworked as part of a unifi ed organization to handle multipletasks simultaneously.We also improved infrastructure at our assembly plant tobetter respond to TMC’s global expansion and be ready tomanufacture at a high, stable level.While further raising production capabilities, which arethe strength of our Vehicles Business, we expect to producevehicles with superior quality and cost effi ciency, therebyfurther contributing to TMC’s car manufacturing operations.TopicAD Diesel Engine Fitted in the RAV4 for EuropeHighly fuel-effi cient, diesel engine vehicles are widely popular asecological vehicles, especially in Europe sincethey emit less CO2.Toyota Industries developed theecological AD diesel engine jointly withTMC. The engine is produced at ToyotaIndustries’ Hekinan Plant and fi tted in thenew RAV4 for Europe, which is assembledby the Vehicle Business.AD diesel engineVehiclesVitz(Yaris outside Japan)RAV4Toyota Industries Corporation Annual Report 200631