Study - Can Anything Stop Toyota
Article: Can Anything Stop Toyota? (Issued on Nov 17, 2003)
An inside look at how it’s reinventing the auto industry.
“Good thing means good products.” The slogan of Toyota’s Takaoka assembly plant.
1. Marketing
a) Diversification - Toyota not only rounded out its product lines in the US, with sport-utility vehicles, trucks, and a hit minivan, but it also has seized the psychological advantage in the market with the Prius and eco-friendly gasoline-electric car.
b) Location redesign - Toyota created an integrated, flexible, global manufacturing system. They redesign the plants around the world. Plants from Indonesia and Argentina will be designed both customize car for local market and to shift production quickly satisfy any surges in demand from market worldwide. Its South Africa plant to meet a need in Europe. Toyota can save about $1 billion normally needed to build a new factory.
c) Cost cutting and redesign chop out billions in expenses. That kept margins strong and free up cash to develop new models and technologies, such as Prius, to invest in global manufacturing, and to invade market such as Europe and China.
d) Increasing the range of target customer - Toyota doesn’t always get it right. Its early attempts at youth market, minivans, and big trucks all disappointed. It remains dependent on the US business for some 70% of earnings.
e) However, Toyota is vigorously attacking the youth market with 14,500 Scion xB impact. Since Scion’s US launch in California, Toyota sold nearly 7,700 of them, 30% better than forecast. Scion is evidence that Toyota’s growing cash cushion gives it the means to revamp it lackluster design.
f) Building new facilities - Toyota building an $800 million plant in San Antonio, Tex., that allows it to more than double its Tundra output, to some 250,000 trucks a year by 2006, with rigs powerful and roomy enough to go head to head with Detroit’s biggest models.
g) Design – Initially, Toyotas were designed with Japanese
An inside look at how it’s reinventing the auto industry.
“Good thing means good products.” The slogan of Toyota’s Takaoka assembly plant.
1. Marketing
a) Diversification - Toyota not only rounded out its product lines in the US, with sport-utility vehicles, trucks, and a hit minivan, but it also has seized the psychological advantage in the market with the Prius and eco-friendly gasoline-electric car.
b) Location redesign - Toyota created an integrated, flexible, global manufacturing system. They redesign the plants around the world. Plants from Indonesia and Argentina will be designed both customize car for local market and to shift production quickly satisfy any surges in demand from market worldwide. Its South Africa plant to meet a need in Europe. Toyota can save about $1 billion normally needed to build a new factory.
c) Cost cutting and redesign chop out billions in expenses. That kept margins strong and free up cash to develop new models and technologies, such as Prius, to invest in global manufacturing, and to invade market such as Europe and China.
d) Increasing the range of target customer - Toyota doesn’t always get it right. Its early attempts at youth market, minivans, and big trucks all disappointed. It remains dependent on the US business for some 70% of earnings.
e) However, Toyota is vigorously attacking the youth market with 14,500 Scion xB impact. Since Scion’s US launch in California, Toyota sold nearly 7,700 of them, 30% better than forecast. Scion is evidence that Toyota’s growing cash cushion gives it the means to revamp it lackluster design.
f) Building new facilities - Toyota building an $800 million plant in San Antonio, Tex., that allows it to more than double its Tundra output, to some 250,000 trucks a year by 2006, with rigs powerful and roomy enough to go head to head with Detroit’s biggest models.
g) Design – Initially, Toyotas were designed with Japanese