Toyota History Starting from Selling Loom Machinery

Durable and very affordable is the tagline that people associate with the biggest automotive company in Japan, Toyota. Perhaps it's the best trademark to be used for this company and the brand Toyota is well-known throughout the world.

Not just that but you can easily find the dealership to buy a Toyota car as well as its maintenance if you already own one. The number of users for this car is the biggest in the world but not all things started out the way they want to in the beginning.

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Let us see the history of Toyota from the start.

How it all started?
Toyota was founded by Sakichi Toyoda who was considered an industrialist. At first, Toyota did not start out in the automotive industry instead, Toyota was producing loom machinery and the name back then was Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.

The company started to expand right after the first world war due to high demand in the fabrics industry. In the year 1933, the son of the founder, Toyoda Kiichiro decided to make a change by turning the company into an automotive industry when the demands were high in Japan.

It was after that the name of the company became Toyota.
They started researching companies from the west like General Motors, Ford Motors, and Chrysler for them to invent the first Toyota car namely Toyota Model AA.
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However, the start of World War II changed the company towards producing trucks to be used during the war. After the defeat of the Rising Sun in the second world war, Toyota returns back to producing cars for the domestic market.

Unique Manufacturing Practice
In the 1950s, an executive from Toyota decided to pay a visit to one of their manufacturing facilities in Michigan to see how the automotive industry in the United States produced their cars in bulk. Taiichi Ohno who happens to be a very great engineer was also present during the visit on behalf of Toyota.

He was very impressed with the techniques used, but based on his observation, there were definitely flaws in the method. This is despite the US industry being far ahead and can be produced on a large scale.

During that era, the techniques being applied were not suited for Japan as they did not have a lot of the required raw materials like the US. Therefore, Toyota decided to develop their own technique which they call lean manufacturing in which the production will be based on the demand. This also includes the spare parts of the car.

By implementing this technique, the labor force and raw materials needed were far less than expected. This has allowed Toyota to produce on a mass scale without keeping all the cars unsold in their inventory.

The Penetration of the US Market

In the 1970s during the oil crisis, most japan made vehicles caught the eye of most people living in the US. This is due to the capacity of engines in Toyota cars being much smaller compared to the cars in the US which utilize a lot of petrol.

Credit: Free 3D

For your information, Toyota became the first company in Japan to reach 1 million units of car sales in the US.

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Over the years onwards, Toyota has gained the trust and popularity of the public due to the durability of their engines, especially in the US. If that's not enough, Toyota also decided to introduce its luxurious model car known as Lexus in order to compete with the popular European brands from Germany.

Credit: Lexus Enthusiast

Lexus cars also quickly gained fame and a place in the American's heart due to the joy it brings and wonderful driving experience not to mention the super engine too.

In the year 2008, Toyota officially has taken the throne which was previously held by General Motors as the main car producer in the world. As of now, Toyota is competing for neck-to-neck with Volkswagen in producing cars.

Both Toyota and Volkswagen have produced as many as 10 million units of vehicles in the year 2020 alone, an achievement they definitely are proud of.

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