Page 90 - Toyota Under Fire

THE OIL CRISIS AND THE GREA T RECESSION

financial and technical support and kaizen training. Another
example of the long-term investment that Toyota makes in
these partnerships is working with suppliers to buffer them from
production changes. For example, when Toyota moved Tundra
capacity from Indiana to Texas, Dana Corporation lost the truck
chassis business to the incumbent supplier of chassis to TMMTX,
a firm in Mexico. However, while it shifted this business away
from Dana, Toyota moved other business to Dana, such as parts
for the Highlander, which was moving to Indiana, so that there
was little net impact on Dana’s business.

So it wasn’t just Toyota plants that emerged stronger from the
recession. Its relationships with suppliers also became stronger,
both through the experience of seeing how Toyota treated them
in the worst of times—that its commitment to people and to its
business partners wasn’t just talk—and through their participa-
tion in TPS, TBP, and kaizen training and exercises. Of course,
having stronger suppliers was another win in the efforts to re-
build the company’s long-term profitability. With stronger sup-
pliers, operating at a higher level of productivity and quality, the
company could be even more flexible in responding quickly to
volatile demand and changes in the marketplace.

Emerging from the Recession

The combined effect of these and similar efforts across North
America and around the world had begun to turn the tide for
Toyota by the summer of 2009. Demand had stabilized with the
help of “cash for clunkers”–type programs from governments in

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