Originally published at: Shoichiro Toyoda, who made Toyota a global automaker, dead at 97 | Boing Boing
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My cousin has a 1982 Toyota pick-up with more than 900K miles on it.
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The stuff about the family vs company name is an interesting digression. Thanks for sharing.
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He outlasted the operational life of a Hilux. Impressive.
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He almost made it to one full Nokia 3310.
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This joint venture is presumed to be the event that was fictionalized for the movie Gung Ho. Some tropes in it haven’t aged well, but it’s actually quite a sweet little story of disparate people coming together, which was no small thing at the height of Japanophobia. The film skews a wee bit anti-union, as was the sentiment at the time, but otherwise it’s fun and quite charming. Worth a watch!
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Man, I remember that.
Fun (maybe) fact - that NUMMI factory is today where Tesla manufactures cars.
Plants in Kentucky and Canada were built in 1986, significantly boosting the company’s production capacity.
Another fun fact - the KY plant is the largest Toyota factory in the world.
They really spearheaded non-US car companies manufacturing here. Most Hondas and most Toyotas sold here are built here. BMWs largest plant in the world is in South Carolina. VW’s presence here is huge as well. Mercedes makes GLE, GLS and EQS SUV models in Alabama.
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The Toyota Tundra I bought in 2011, and still drive? was wholly built and intended for the US Market.
The other big thing was the Toyota Production System, which directly inspired kanban project/workflow management, and lean / Just In Time manufacturing workflows with all their wrinkles and benefits.
(I refuse to use the acronym TPS for it, because that reminds me too much of Office Space and the micromanging [redacted] boss in that movie.)
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