Documentary showing Toyota's history and how it became the largest car company in the world.

[Music] today we'll talk about a huge company that's still essentially a family-run business currently the grandson of the founder is a president of the company we're talking about toyota the 10th largest company in the world so how does a family business in the textile industry in japan become the largest car manufacturer in the world how did toyota get so big buckle up and let's take a ride through toyota's history [Music] the story starts with a simple farmer carpenter and a weaver in japan [Music] their son sakichi is fascinated with machines he wants to make weaving easier [Music] so he invents multiple weaving devices and looms which are machines that make fabric [Music] his most famous invention is the automatic power loom a machine that stops itself when a problem occurs while weaving sakichi becomes known as the father of the industrial revolution in japan and king of japanese and vendors let's pause for a moment here toyota has some secret symbols woven into their history for example if you look at toyota's current logo some people believe it reflects their beginnings in textile weaving take a look and see if you can see the thread going through the needle [Music] toyota's official stance is that the inner oval symbolize the heart of the customer and heart of the company and that the overlapping lines represent trust while forming the letter t for toyota and that the outer oval signifies the world embracing toyota but you judge for yourself now maybe you're wondering why the company's name is toyota well the family name is toyota in 1930 toyota had a logo design contest they received 27 000 design entries the winning entry had the word toyota inside a circle but toyo and da means rice paddy the family preferred the word toyo with ta because it's visually simpler and had eight brush strokes and eight is a lucky number in japan also the company wouldn't be associated with old-fashioned farming also in the current logo you can see each individual letter that make up the word [Music] toyota now back to our story tsukichi's son is chiro the year is 1929 he's 35 years old and he's in detroit the heart of the young automobile industry he's there touring all the leading automobile companies [Music] the goal is to observe and learn because he wants to start making his own cars back in japan problem is he's already late in the game rewind six years prior to 1923 the great kanto earthquake happened it destroyed much of the tokyo railway system so the city of tokyo ordered 800 truck chassis from ford fit them with rough kansas top bodies and used them as municipal buses ford saw market potential in japan general motors saw it too and entered the market at that time there were smaller japanese car makers in japan [Music] but ford and gm were inexpensive compared to the japanese domestic cars [Music] ford models are selling a bit less than 4 000 yen where it cost local manufacturers over 9 000 yen just to produce them so the american brands were crushing japan's emerging motor industry from a japanese standpoint entering the car market seemed impossible but this doesn't stop the chiro in 1933 he establishes a motor vehicle division within the loom factory he decides to design his prototype on the chrysler bill 1934 desoto copying the engine from chevrolet and the chassis and electronics from ford two years later it's 1935. the model a1 passenger car prototype is complete it uses a six cylinder engine which produces 62 horsepower it has a three-speed column shift manual gearbox some of the parts have been cast and forged in this factory the vehicle also incorporates many genuine chevrolet parts they then redesigned the a1 into the aea sedan a year later this is the first passenger car toyota releases it sells for 3 350 yen which is cheaper than ford and gm car kichiro knows its successes from copying the work of other it was necessary to do this to enter the market but he believes in order to truly advance japan's automotive industry he must cultivate a drive for innovation that's why he establishes a research laboratory in shibaru tokyo in may 1936 now let's pause our story for a moment this is clue number one on how toyota got big toyota may have started out imitating but they didn't stop there the son of an inventor and the inventor himself kichiro knew the value of innovation we'll get more into toyota's innovations in part two of the series now let's get back to our store remember kichiro just produced his first passenger car but most japanese consumers aren't ready to buy passenger cars for households so he decides to make the g1 truck because trucks are in high demand and are more profitable in the short run but the g1 comes with a lot of mechanical problems so toyota supports early sales with free repairs and even replacement vehicles that's clue on number two how toyota got big from the earliest days toyota had a good warranty system if they broke they fixed it they earned the consumer's confidence and cheer on himself helped fix customer card kachira applies the jidoka principle from his father's loom business to car manufacturing his father sakichi has invented the jidoka concept jidoka involves asking the five whys to find the root cause of a problem then implementing a solution to prevent the future recurrences here's how judoko works to fix any problem with a car any mechanic can use it even today for example let's say a vehicle won't start first you ask why let's say you find the battery's dead then you ask a second why let's say you find the alternators not functioning ask the third one you learn the alternator belt has broken ask the fourth why you see the alternator belt was beyond its useful service life and had not been replaced past the last slide you learned the vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule using this method you know how to fix the car and you also learn how to prevent it from happening again in the future in this example the root cause where the car won't start is because the user didn't do regular service maintenance needed anyway kachiro uses this method to streamline the car manufacturing process and impact mechanical quality now remember he's selling the aaa sedans and g1 trucks at the time but then world war ii happen as with all wars it brings extreme economic difficulties toyota pauses making passenger cars and instead makes trucks for the japanese military the allies plan to bomb the toyota factory but fortunately for toyota the war ends before that happened so the war ends two years later it's 1947. kichiro restarts his commercial car production toyota sells small sized cars called toyo pet but toyota's on the edge of bankruptcy even though it secures loans from several banks they're just barely getting bad teacher row looks to expand business and conducts research on helicopters and a new type of gasoline for it it's now 1950 toyota produces only 300 trucks and he's about to go out of business so toyota reduces wages and lays off many employees this causes the union to go on strike for two months they demand that kichiro resigns as president and he steps down in june 1950.

the same month the korean war starts during the war the u. s military orders 5 000 vehicles from toyota that is what revives toyota couple years later it's 1952 a decision is made to reinstate teacher row as president preparations are made to reinstate him in july kicharo dies unexpectedly in march he's just 57 years old this leads kaizo ishida to continue as president taizo originally took his position when kichiro stepped down he was personally trained in the loom industry by tsukici toyota he saw himself as toyota's caretaker and looked after the company during the labor dispute under his leadership the crown is introduced in 1955. it's toyota's first mass-produced passenger car in japan two years later the crown becomes our first vehicle to be exported to the united states but it fails in the u.

s market the price is higher than the european imports and it lacks horsepower some say it's because of toyota's unsophisticated marketing the name pet crown is unappealing to americans since it contains the word toy and pep hard not to agree with that after all who wants a toy car although there are fans of the beetle and many so why not toyopat anyway in its first year it sells only 287 vehicles in 1960 it sells just 659. compare that to the ford falcon which sells 435 000 and chevy corvair which sells 250 000 so toyota redesigns the car and launches the all-new toyota crown in 1963 without the toyo pet name the car is longer lower and has more engine power sails inch up to almost 1100 vehicles a year it's better but not great toyota limps on then they develop a new car for the u. s market the corona toyota makes huge improvements and designs the corona with america's open roads in mind it has a 90 horsepower engine this is almost twice as powerful as the volkswagen beetle which is the nation's best selling import at the time it also has air conditioning and automatic transmission everything that americans want in a car by 1967 toyota has sold 32 000 pushing the company to the fifth most imported brand in the united states that's clue number three to toyota's success when toyota tried but didn't succeed they tried again and clue number four understand your customers if the car isn't suited for american roads then change the car specifications if customers aren't interested in a car that sounds like a toy then change the name if people like the name don't change it if it's not broken which brings us to the crown name earlier we saw that tsukici toyota became known as the king of japanese inventors now the company is releasing a range of successful cars which all happen to have names related to a royal crown after the release of the toyota crown he developed a car called the corona which means crown in latin it is initially exported as the tiara thereafter comes corolla which means small crown in latin what about the camry that means little crown in japanese and don't forget the toyota scepter named after the staff or rod held by royalty and an accessory to the crown is it a coincidence that they become the king of all car companies enter a.

g toyota he's kichiro's much younger cousin who graduated as a mechanical engineer kichiro had invited aj to join his car business before the war it's the 1950s aeg is visiting ford factories in the us by now toyota's been manufacturing cars for 13 years and has made over 2500 in total contrast that the ford is making 8 000 vehicles a day ag is odd by the scale but aeg believes that he has found both material waste and production inefficiencies at ford he believes that ford and toyota are near equals in terms of technology he decides to adopt american mass production methods but with better quality standards to do this he returns to toyota's roots he collaborates with taiichi ono a veteran loom machinist together they find ways to lower costs by eliminating excess inventory and waste they make incremental improvements to make cars quicker easier and cheaper to assemble that will become known later as the toyota way one of the elements is kanban to explain how kanban works let's take the example of a pizza restaurant it's easy to make one pizza on time but what if you receive a lot of orders together you don't want to make the pizzas before they're ordered or prepare ingredients too soon the pizza and ingredients need to be fresh but you also don't want to run out of ingredients this will delay getting your orders out in reasonable time let's use kanban to help you solve this problem first arrange the ingredients in the order you build the pizza prepare enough ingredients to save four pizzas then arrange them in a way that you can quickly see when and which ingredients are running low in this example when using ingredients it leaves an empty space so you can see when and how much you need the empty space is a visual clue if you don't replenish the ingredients the entire production line will get held up at that spot toyota uses this process in their car production lines they also fine-tune the concept of kaizen kaizen is a concept in making small but continuous improvements so how does kaizen work step one imagine you work in a packaging factory you notice that the packaging tape often rolls onto the floor every time this happens you must stop working and retrieve it you think it would be good to have a tape dispenser in the desk it definitely saved time step two but first you need to observe to make sure it's not just you finds it a problem so you realize other employees and find they are struggling with the role step three so maybe now you talk to others to see if they have better ideas step four you vote on the best idea which turns out to be the dispensary step five you put the dispenser on your bench step six you check to see if it's working it's important to measure the results step seven if it works well then you suggest that everyone gets a dispenser on their bench it may seem small but imagine you have thousands of people working on a company this will add up to a huge time save these ideas are used in many of the world's largest companies today not just in automobile manufacturing but in other businesses too you could probably find ways to use these in your life or business which is clue number five to toyota success improve things incrementally and constantly now let's get back to our story it's the 1960s toyota makes a bold move up until now the company is seen as practical and imitative the toyota 2000 gt changes all that the toyota 2000 gt is a limited production front engine rear-wheel drive two-seat hard top cool grand tour it's designed in collaboration with yamaha and revealed at the tokyo motor show it receives rave reviews and is compared fably with a porsche 911 the car wins third place in the 1966 japanese grand prix two convertibles are specially made for the james bond film you only live twice it also becomes the first seriously collectible japanese car who will later sell at auctions for as much as 1. 2 million us dollars now it's 1967 a. g toyota becomes president of the company in 1972 toyota reached the milestone of 1 million vehicles sold by 1974 the corolla was one of the best selling cars worldwide by 1975 they overtake volkswagen to become the number one import brand in the united states one of the things people love about toyota is that the cars are so reliable you might wonder why the toyota corolla remains so successful remember back to the toyota way well toyota was never content to sit back they continued to make improvements this led to the corolla becoming one of the greatest cars of all time a.

g played a large role in this happening but it wasn't only him he had someone at a side learning from him and supporting him the whole time stay tuned to find out what this was but first let's talk briefly about the celica meaning celestia or heaven this model charges into the toyota stage in 1970 it's powered by four cylinders and all-wheel turbocharged models are offered in 1986. in motorsports it's known for its rallying prowess we'll be talking more about this heavenly car in future episodes especially the 1994 model which i'd go so far to say has changed some people's lives i know it changed mine [Music] some kind of magic ingredient that takes you there now it's 1982 a new era begins for toyota kichiro's eldest son shoei shiro becomes president the press calls him the crown prince of toyota more crowns before we talk about showie shiro does as president we need to rewind almost two decades because hidden behind the scenes showi shiro has been continuously working at improving quality control we were referring to him when we said a. g had help they were making many more cars and had many more people working the rise in claim costs alarmed aj who was vice president at that time sachiro wanted to bring in exports and quality control he convinced aeg and ishida to let him do this but it wasn't very popular with everyone even production expert taiichi ono the veteran loom machinist thought he was wasting his time they were proved wrong when his program resulted in a huge improvement oh no even found it helped his just-in-time assembly line process so now we know just how responsible so each euro was for toyota's success toyota was known for making quality cars just like the loom stop when its single thread was broken so clue number six the toyota success was quality control it's 1983.

so each euro challenges toyota engineers to build the world's best car the project is code named f1 for flagship one the result is the lexus ls400 which becomes japanese best-selling luxury car there is a theory that says lexus is the combination of the words luxury and elegance another says it's an acronym for luxury exports to the us it's true it was created specifically for the us but are those theories true what do you think sirichiro is hugely responsible for taking toyota global up until the 1980s toyota is still primarily an export-based economy soichiro knows how to become a truly global organization the company needs to manufacture its products in the local markets especially in the united states in 1984 toyota enters into a partnership with general motors to build his first car in fremont california this is clue number seven to toyota's success worldwide factories helped to make toyota the world's largest automaker today toyota has 53 manufacturing sites outside of japan most of these are open during the 1980s so each year all believes people are the key to the company's future he introduces practices like genji jambutsu into management this means go and see for yourself so if there is a problem a manager must personally go and observe the problem to understand it then the manager works with the employees to solve the problem through consensus in the early 2000s so each euro is considered japan's leading voice on international cooperation and globalization he believes in people and so does toyota which is clue number eight in toyota's success investing in people it's now 1997. toyota launch is the first mass-produced hybrid car the iconic prius prius is latin for go before and the prius lives up to the name it's the first hybrid car in the world to be mass-produced some say its importance in the history of car manufacturing is equal to that of the ford model t because it symbolizes the new electric era of cars it's economical with minimal emissions it becomes the world's top selling hybrid car by far you might think that this is because it's the first to market but actually this isn't the reason honda insight arrived in the us first but prius was the first to launch globally prius is also not even the world's first hybrid car the idea for hybrids goes way back to 1889 when william h patton developed a gasoline electric hybrid rail car propulsion system then ferdinand porsche developed the mixed hybrid vehicle in 1900 but it won't be until the late 20th century that hybrid vehicles in general become commercially viable back to our story so if honda launches ahead of prius in america why doesn't it win the race here well americans like practicality and space for larger cars the inside are only two doors and accommodation for just two people it's less practical for most americans the prius on the other hand has space for four in the battle of the hybrids prius leads not only america but in the rest of the world too it doesn't surrender its position after prius toyota looks for more ways to become environmentally friendly this is clue number nine on how toyota got so big the world is moving towards green energy so too does toyota and it's not just cars the company receives criticism because manufacturing priuses has a larger environmental impact on most cars so toyota genetically engineers the toyota flower its purpose is to balance the carbon dioxide released into the prius assembly plant two new species were created from cherry sage and gardenia one absorbs nitrogen oxide the other creates water vapor to reduce the temperature surrounding the factory toyota continues to improve the manufacturing processes in 1999 they introduced the econ bond system earlier in part two of our history we explained how the traditional kanban system works if you missed it click on the link below remember the pizza shop you keep just enough ingredients ready for a set number of pizzas as you use ingredients you replenish what you've used and continue assembling the pizza of course it's much easier to manage this if you're in the pizza shop and can see when ingredients are low but at a car manufacturing plant the parts can come from far away it's hard to keep track of something you can't see so cards are used to keep track when a parts container is empty a card is placed inside each container card contains the part number and details then the container is sent back to the supplier the supplier can see from the card what parts are needed they fill the container with those parts and send it back to toyota this works well in japan because many of the parts suppliers are close to the toyota manufacturing factory but in europe it's a little different some of the suppliers are far away from the factories even in different countries so this can cause a delay while the containers being shipped back to the supplier the solution is econ bond the cards are still used between different departments inside the factory but every day the information of the cards is uploaded onto the database suppliers download the data using the internet it's just like receiving the physical cards except quicker the data tells them exactly what parts they need to send they immediately dispatch the parts this cuts the cycle time in half which reduces storage which reduces shortage of parts and ensures production is not interrupted now this might seem a simple and obvious solution but remember at the end of 1999 only four percent of the world is using the internet but let's get back to what's happening at toyota it's 2009 akio toyota becomes president he is grandson of kichiro toyota i never met my grandfather but i tried to to think what he thinks big news for toyota toyota has been inducted to the automotive hall of fame by the way who are you anyway i'm a kia toyota your grandson oh what do you do now i work for an automobile company [Music] i hope it's toyota akio toyota is a master driver he has spent countless hours behind the wheel of his third generation a80 supra no surprise that this motor enthusiast backs toyota racing projects before becoming president he worked on the toyota gr project which stands for gazoo racing gazoo refers to the word garage it is an intimate place where the team works together to improve the finest details it's this idea that drives toyota gazoo racing to make better cars akio believes that toyota must manufacture cars that are fun for every toyota customer to drive with the kio steering the company gr finally wins at lumon and also wins victories at the world's rally championship the nirvan ring 24 hours and japan's super gt series it's 2019.