TOYOTA - THE HISTORY OF THE COMPANY. WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW

well it's time to tell you about the main hero of the japanese automotive industry about the one who occupied and still occupies the first places in various top lists of japanese automakers moreover in 2008 this company became the largest car manufacturer in the world for the first time overtaking the monster general motors in the world brand slogans have long been entrenched among car brands honda manage reality nissan exceeding expectation ford feel the difference kia the art of surprise mitsubishi changes for the better but there is one advertising slogan of a japanese car company which tells as accurately as possible about how it all started and what motivated the creators toyota manage the dream without exaggeration a dream after all this story began with a dream an incredible story many people call toyota a miracle of the 20th century but there's not any miracle here there is plenty of perseverance character and will to achieve goals so let's get to know the company that produces some of the most reliable cars on the planet meet toyota company or rather toyota motor corporation the main member of the modern corporation toyota group it is not surprising if this story can seriously motivate some of you and your endeavors and maybe due to this motivation a miracle of the 22nd century will appear once please find us when this happens and thank us at the very least send a postcard now let's move on to the story itself now is february 14 1867 in europe and america people celebrate valentine's day and at this time in japan in the town of kosai was born a baby who having grown up will lay the foundation of the automobile giant toyota meet sakichi toyota then his school years were waiting for him in the awakening of a damn strong craving for industrial mechanisms and invention this guy did not miss a single industrial exhibition was interested in modern technologies and had also read european literature which also had a positive effect on it here by the way is another plus of the d blocking of japan in the second half of the 19th century books books from other countries with various success stories philosophy and other manifestations of civilization all this self-development works and aspirations of sakichi toyota are not in vain and in 1890 he invented a car no an internal combustion engine no not that either he invents a handmade wooden loom and inserts his surname toyota into the name unexpected right we're kind of talking about cars here and here's a loom yes but this only makes the story better and more interesting now i have to say sakichi toyota's father was a carpenter and if strict japanese traditions were still strictly observed sakichi would have followed in his father's footsteps but the traditions were no longer as strict as before and fortunately for everyone especially for motorists tsukichi rushed into the field of invention even if it was still in the sphere of the weaving industry tsukichi toyota saw that he was good at designing realized this in practice and began to develop his talent by giving the land of the rising sun novelty after novelty you can't get far with a manual drive zakichi toyota thought and in 1896 he invented an electric powered loom many employees of weaving factories probably thanked him for this in 1906 a japanese genius invented a circular loom it was more practical and convenient in comparison with the classical type of machines well for dessert in 1924 sakichi toyota brought to the world an absolutely top automatic loom toyota type g here the workers of the weaving factories were not so happy it was the first machine in the world that was not just automatic but could also do the work without stopping to change the shuttle with thread to a new one it didn't even need to be stopped work in non-stop mode with minimal human involvement what could be better for business realizing that he had invented a breakthrough gizmo sakichi realized that it was time to open his own company for the production of machine tools and so in 1926 he registered toyota automatic loomworks by the way he already had a business at the very end of the 19th century he jointly owned the atsukawa textile factory with his partners on which of course worked his machines and it was an ideal situation he invented the machine immediately tested it on his own production identified shortcomings modified it and eventually got excellent equipment and so toyota automatic loomworks began to seriously engage in the production and trade of weaving equipment of its own design the success of sakichi toyota in the automation of weaving production had reached the distant uk the guys were seriously interested in a patent for an automatic loom born in the country of samurai as a result in 1929 platt brothers and company bought the patent from sikichi toyota they gave him a hundred thousand pounds but they did not regret it once as they achieved excellent performance indicators thanks to his machine one person could operate 30 machines and another very important detail the number of defects was reduced since the machines were equipped with a system that when the thread broke immediately stopped the whole process as a result sakichi toyota got hold of a tidy sum with which it was possible to start something even more serious from this moment the company's path in the automotive industry will begin unfortunately no one is eternal and in 1930 sakichi toyota left this world all the business of the company passed to his son kichiro toyota there are many legends and versions of how and why kichiro decided to engage in the automotive industry one of them the one that we'll stick to is that it was his father's last wish before his death he allegedly told his son that this was his dream which he had to realize whether this is true or fiction will remain a mystery but kichiro toyota invested the money earned for the patent on the machine to open a new division that was supposed to develop and invent its own cars this is an indisputable fact and five years later in 1935 the first models were built the model g1 truck and the model a1 passenger car once again we see how boring the pioneers of the automotive industry called their offspring and not only the japanese after all it could have been called the samurai or tsunami or something else so now there were only model a model t and similar names around but let's not criticize after all the main thing is the content so kichiro toyota has a model a1 which in fact was the first prototype in 1936 it was slightly modified and began production of a serial car model aa with a 6-cylinder engine and capacity of more than 60 horsepower later the model a b was added it had a convertible body as we already know very well at first the japanese copied a lot of things from western cars model aaa was no exception on the contrary it was the embodiment of creative copying of ford chrysler and chevrolet developments but you also need to be able to copy toyota automatic loomworks did it well the car came out very high quality but unfortunately not cheap it was the high cost that did not allow them to be sold in large quantities and a little more than 1400 vehicles were produced which in general is a good start you probably noticed that in all our stories at the beginning of the road japanese automakers had the same problem high cost after all ford's philosophy of simplicity and accessibility is of great importance in this business moving on time to talk about that legendary logo at first it was something like a diamond with the family name of the founders inside then for reasons of a more pleasant pronunciation the letter d was changed to the letter t and we received the well-known trademark toyota some sources say that in addition to pleasant pronunciation there was another bonus in favor of the letter t to write the word toyota in japanese you had to make eight movements and eight is a lucky number actually the japanese are fans of symbolism this change occurred in 1937 when the automotive division of toyota automatic loom works company became an independent toyota motor company well the modern emblem in the form of several intersecting ovals appeared as a result of an open competition for the best offer among 20 000 participants and as a result cars with this sign are rolling around the world there are also a lot of legends going around here what does it mean after all we like the one that says that the intersecting figures are a reference to the thread inserted into the eye of a needle that is referring us to sakichi toyota and the origins of the company when it was still engaged only in weaving and looms beautiful and symbolic there is another interesting tradition that has moved from the textile production of toyota automatic loomworks to car assembly work if one of the workers discovered a problem during the assembly process all production was stopped and the defect was eliminated in all directions in order to reduce the risk of defective products that's where the origins of the legendary reliability of toyota cars may lie it seems that the story with the lucky number eight gave a result and toyota motor company in 1937 received an order from the government for three thousand trucks guaranteed profit allowed them to invest in their own research and development it was time to stop copying other people's technologies and with the funds from this order a separate automobile plant was built in the city of coromo this plan would become the heart of the city and indeed the city itself would become the japanese detroit and later renamed the city of toyota altogether toyota motor company is beginning to implement a full cycle production strategy in simple terms the company bought or opened enterprises for the production of components aggregates and everything needed to assemble cars as a result they were no longer threatened by supply failures and disruption of production or its stoppage everything was in their hands well as we learned earlier when the japanese government orders a lot of heavy trucks it seems clear what that smells like difficult for humanity 1940s were approaching by the beginning of world war ii toyota motor company had almost completely switched to the production of trucks only of course for the needs of the japanese army if we compare the participation of toyota in the technical support of the army with mitsubishi of course the roles of toyota are a little more modest and the achievement's not so loud undoubtedly toyota motor company was an important component of japan's military machine but it all came down mainly to the production of trucks and lightly armored vehicles although there is information about the participation of toyota in the creation of four-wheel drive amphibious vehicles of the su key type for the japanese armed forces japan had big problems with raw materials for production and cars for the army were as simple as possible they even installed just one headlight to save money in total the company produced more than 40 000 units of various automotive equipment for the army during the war period in the last years of the war the company tried to work on lighter four-wheel drive suvs based on the same model aaa from these attempts appeared a dozen all-wheel drive experimental ak-10 pickups and toyota motor companies supplied a large number of engines for other factories for the production of military equipment well the textile industry toyota took an active part in providing the army with uniforms all factories without exception were put to work during the war a considerable part of the infrastructure of the toyota motor company was destroyed as well as the whole japanese industry but no matter what kichiro toyota was faithful to his father's dream and was not going to give up toyota made a decision to start production of a new car model and so in 1947 among the ruins of the capitulated country on the broken roads the model sa appeared this car had a new body design somewhat resembling a volkswagen beetle improved suspension reduced dimensions two doors four-cylinder engine in general is a neat and good car but there was an economic crisis in the country and the population did not have enough money even for a moped let alone a car for the automaker these were simply disastrous conditions for example from 1947 to 1952 toyota somehow produced only 300 cars and was almost on the verge of bankruptcy they had to cut workers which led to riots and strikes in general it was a situation which you will not wish on your enemy here there are some interesting points worth mentioning various post-war industrial control systems operated in the country and at this time in relation to car manufacturing a terrible injustice has reigned the joke is that the prices of raw materials were not particularly controlled and grew rapidly but the price of cars on the contrary was strictly controlled imagine you had to spend more and more resources on the production of one car and you could not raise the price for a vehicle with all your desire it was like a nightmare it is not difficult to guess how this affected the already weakened business more and more losses and the toyota company employed a large number of staff when things don't go well well here come the job cuts the company has repeatedly said that it would try to avoid such measures but sometimes the reality is cruel the workers unions sensing that the case smelled of layoffs almost began to rebel misunderstandings and dissatisfaction between them and the company's management constantly broke out kichiro toyota was terribly worried about this and was really nervous so nervous that in the end he became seriously ill as a result the management and decision making were handled by the council of top managers and in the spring of 1950 the company still made an unpleasant decision about the voluntary retirement of more than fifteen hundred employees after such a statement real and large-scale strikes had already begun for two months in a row riots continued among workers supported by the union production volumes had fallen by 70 percent it was a deadly situation for the company and that's where kishiro toyota acted like a real noble samurai in june of 1950 he announced his retirement thus he admitted his guilt and took responsibility for himself such an act cooled the order of the workers as they respected their boss very much and such a step raised his authority and most importantly it worked the strikes stopped and the company was on the road to recovery so the company also had to get into a big loan to stay afloat and then apparently the lucky number eight worked again it was 1952 the korean war was thundering at full volume the us army needed military vehicles and the usa realizing that toyota was ready for anything and had considerable experience in the construction of trucks ordered the production of more than 4 500 army trucks plus the subsequent maintenance of the equipment now here is that very financing the breadth of oxygen so necessary for a bloodless company that was on the verge of ruin thus toyota motor company had another chance and despite the fact that kichiro toyota died in 1952 toyota did not miss this chance and still got out of the it found itself in after world war ii as soon as the funds appeared the company began to modernize production introduce innovations and develop its own developments toyota motor company began to apply a new philosophy the basic principle was constant development and improvement the company had introduced a system for collecting ideas the bottom line is that absolutely any employee could introduce the idea of improving any process and if the idea was good and implemented the employee received a bonus toyota motor company however had effective managers in the late 1950s and early 1960s the affairs of the toyota motor company began to improve the country was gradually recovering and with it the motor transport market but the pace was slow it was necessary to enter the markets of countries in which the car had long been commonplace but the fame of the plagiarist was fixed for toyota very firmly everyone believed that they would not be able to release their car the company needed a breakthrough that would allow it to sell cars to foreigners and the breakthrough happened toyota had received another state order for the production of cars for taxis for official needs and even for the police the result of working on this order was one of the longest lived models of the company toyota crown it was a completely japanese development not a single bolt was borrowed from european and american models everything was its own in parallel work was underway on the creation of an all-wheel drive civilian suv this is how the legendary toyota land cruiser appeared the company confidently expanded its model range in 1957 toyota entered the u.s market exporting toyota land cruiser and toyota crown there and in 1959 the company opened its first factory in another country in brazil and although at first there was no dizzying success in exports during the oil crisis when voracious american cars with insane engine volumes would give way to subcompacts the time would come for toyota by the way we'll definitely tell you about the oil crisis and its consequences for the big american three automakers there were actually a lot of interesting things going on there but back to toyota a wonderful period was beginning for the company the growth rate was amazing in 1955 the company produced just over 8 000 cars a year and by 1965 they were already producing 600 000 cars a year soon the mark of a million cars produced was passed and at the end of the 1960s the toyota corolla was recognized as the best selling car in the world and they would record this achievement in the guinness book of records a sports car the toyota 2000 gt would also appear in the model range later the world would see the toyota camry which is still being produced as well as a toyota corolla and it looks like they'll be producing them for a hell of a long time the direction of premium class cars under the lexus brand would open work would begin on development of a hybrid drive implemented in the toyota prius it sounds incredible but the company that was engaged in the production of looms is now one of the largest automakers in the world it works on hydrogen-fueled cars develops electric vehicles has a robotics direction its own bank and much more a miracle no it's just a manifestation of human capabilities and engineering multiplied by perseverance and unwillingness to give up on the way to a dream well is it fair if we call the story of toyota a unique success story undoubtedly using the example of another brilliant japanese management we have seen what it really means to manage a dream stay with us and we promise to continue to acquaint you with interesting historical facts

Channel: OOOnce

Views: 439,819

Keywords: Toyota, Japan, Japanese cars, land cruiser, Japanese history, history of Toyota, car manufacturing, cars, 20th century Japan, World War II, The Japanese Empire

Id: c9hL1OHmcHQ

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022