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April 24, 2007
Toyota Quarterly Global Sales Surpass GM
You can file this one under things that make me smile folks. Now I don't know if GM will up production to try and pass Toyota before the year is out to hold onto the title, but a new age is approaching in the automotive industry and anything else for that matter. I can not say enough good things about Kaizen and the Toyota Production System to be honest. The amazing simplicity of the philosophy and the system are staggering. In Toyota's world the lowliest grunt can stop an entire production line if they find a problem. Their workers are encouraged to think outside the box and redesign the processes they know best at any time. Anything to make things better and the employees are a valuable part of the process.
Toyota owners came to America and saw the Big 3 in their hey day and were unimpressed. They set about to make something better and oh my did they ever! Toyota is now a leading innovator in automotive technology, always thinking ahead, always making measured steps toward the needs of the customer in the future. The hybrid is prefect example, Toyota sees it as an intermediate step on the way toward a fuel cell powered car. They just need to improve the electric motors and battery technologies along the way, while they work on the fuel cells technology. Everything is planned and choreographed like a Samurai practicing with a sword.
Of course we Americans tend to be the impatient types, being such a young and ambiguous sort of nation. For example most people don't realize that in Japan automakers sell hybrids in every class of vehicle they sell in the US, but only in Japan. They don't offer them here, because for the most part Americans haven't shown much interest in the technology until recently and they've been building the infrastructure to actually support wider and wider demand for their products. Right now the USC Hybrid Center is trying to push the Toyota Estima Hybrid onto the market in America (Here's the sign up if you're interested). I've talked about the Toyota Estima Hybrid before. You'll notice that they are using the new mileage numbers from the EPA instead of the old numbers that they were talking about in the original article. Oh how times have changed!
Some times I worry there isn't method to the movements of Toyota, but time again their genius has amazed and surprised me. I'm going to have faith in them that they are on the right path. More than I can say for the Big 3.
[via The Bonddad Blog]
Read more over at Yahoo Business and AutoblogGreen.
Posted by Jamison at April 24, 2007 3:07 PM
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