Page 51 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

NUMMI was a large part of the basis for the bestselling book The
Machine That Changed the World, which introduced the term lean
manufacturing to describe Toyota’s approach as a new paradigm,
as important as the shift from craft to mass production.
NUMMI was also successful enough to convince Toyota that it
could expand production in North America. Just a few years later,
Toyota announced its first wholly owned North American pro-
duction facility, to be built in Georgetown, Kentucky. From there,
Toyota went from success to success. The new facility, known
as Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, racked up quality award
after quality award. Meanwhile, Toyota’s market share steadily
grew. Each new product that the company introduced quickly be-
came a leader in its category in terms of both quality and sales.
During the 1990s, Toyota was steadily gaining market share
on GM. By the turn of the century, everyone saw the handwrit-
ing on the wall. Before long, Toyota would overcome GM as the
world’s leading car company. The only question was when. That
was the context for Global Vision 2010, Toyota’s vision for the
decade, publicly announced in 2002.
At Toyota, setting companywide goals and 10-year strategies
is the task of the most senior executives and the board of direc-
tors, as it is at any company. But that group at Toyota is unique—
the board of directors is nearly 30 strong and is made up almost
entirely of current and former executives. Every executive vice
president of TMC is a member of the board, and former presi-
dents remain on the board after they step down. So the com-
panywide goals are not set by the current president and a small
circle of advisors. Setting these goals is a consensus process that
includes current, former, and future chief executives (who are al-
ways lifetime employees of Toyota), along with the senior leaders
who are running the business daily around the world.

20