Company Profile and Environmental Dimension
Toyota Motor Corporation is the third largest producer of automobile and related vehicles in the world, following General Motors and Ford. The Corporation operates thirty-eight production or assembly plants in twenty-five countries worldwide. In fiscal year 1994, Toyota sold 4,130,846 vehicles worldwide, of which 3,293,550 were passenger cars, and 837,296 were trucks or buses. Of these total vehicles, 2,120,716, or 51.3 percent of the total, were sold outside of Japan. It should be noted that a combination of a strong yen and an economic downturn in Japan caused a significant decline in FY 1994 production as compared to the previous year; the reduced production amounted to 6.9 percent in Japan and 8.1 percent overseas.
The ultimate mission of Toyota Motor Corporation is defined in terms of its statement of vision: "Toyota is a company devoted to enhancing the quality of life for people around the world by providing useful and appealing products."
Within that overall philosophical framework, the mission of Toyota can be characterized as becoming the world's leading vehicle manufacturer. "Leading" here should be understood as signifying not simply a transient leadership in production and sales volume, but a broader conception of Toyota as the standard-setter in the industry, setting benchmarks of product quality and production efficiency which others will seek to emulate.
The essential objectives of Toyota Motor Corporation are: 1) to decrease costs while maintaining quality though increased production and operational efficiencies; and 2) to expand its global presence in manufacturing as well as sales.
The first of these goals has been pursued primarily through development of new and more efficient production methods. In the past, for example, Toyota has pioneered methods of "lean" production, such as faster and less expensive methods of substituting dies in metal-shapi...