Content about Toyota

Everything you think you know about business growth is wrong. Professor Ed Hess debunks some popular myths about growth and provides proven truths to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses successfully.

A revitalized General Motors Co. today announced profits of $7.6 billion for the year ending 31 December 2011 after a strong performance in the US, but its European and South American operations are still losing money.

This figure represents a 62 percent increase over 2010 profits of $4.7 billion, despite a loss of $700 million across its Vauxhall/Opel plants in the UK and Germany—although this was an improvement over the 2010 loss of $1.3 billion in Europe.

The University of Kentucky’s Lean Systems Program is perhaps the closest you can come to understanding lean as Toyota sees it. Program director Ken Kreafle and Kathleeen Jeurisson of Lake Region Medical, talk about the people side of true lean.

Automotive giant Toyota has announced an investment of more than £100 million into one of its UK manufacturing sites.

The investment will be made at Toyota’s Burnaston, Derbyshire factory, to manufacture new generation hatchbacks.

Manufacturing the C-segment family sized hatchback models will create up to 1,500 additional jobs in the next two years.

Commenting on the news, the UK’s prime minister David Cameron said: “This major announcement from Toyota is fantastic news and a massive vote of confidence for UK manufacturing.

Toyota has announced that it expects its North American vehicle production levels to return to 100 percent in September.

Production is recovering earlier than originally anticipated following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Eight of the company’s 12 North American-built models returned to 100 percent production on 6 June.

“After September we will focus on making-up lost production as much as possible,” said Steve St. Angelo, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing, North America.

The car manufacturing industry in the UK is under threat from a lack of local component suppliers, according to Nick Reilly, chairman of GM Europe.

Reilly told the BBC this weekend that the lack of home-based parts manufacturers was the most critical issue facing the UK motor industry, which was obliged to import a high proportion of parts.

Even overseas manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan were finding it hard to compete in their UK operations, he said, because of shipping costs and an extended supply chain.

Microsoft and Toyota have announced a $12 million investment in Toyota Media Services, a strategic partnership to make the automobile the ultimate mobile device.

The partnership intends to use Microsoft’s “cloud computing” Windows Azure platform to develop next-generation telematics services, fusing telecommunications and information technologies in vehicles for GPS systems, energy management and other multimedia technologies.

Automobile sales in the United States had their best month for some time in March, with all major manufacturers recording growth in sales, apart from Toyota.

Chrysler sold 121,730 cars and light trucks during the month, a rise of 31 percent over the same month last year, while Nissan sales rose 26.9 percent from 98,468 last year to 121,141—making March an all-time record month for Nissan North America.

Motor vehicles are becoming ever more reliable, but manufacturers do suffer teething problems with new technology features, according to the 2011 US Vehicle Dependability Study released today by JD Power and Associates.

The study measures problems experienced over the past 12 months by original owners of three-year-old vehicles. Overall dependability is determined by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles, with a lower score reflecting higher quality.

When implementing a lean programme, business leaders should not overlook the significant role that an organised and streamlined workplace could play in its success. Chris Hargreaves, sales manager at storage manufacturer Lista, outlines the various ways in which this can be achieved.

The Markit/CIPS manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) indicated that UK manufacturing maintained its recent record pace of growth in February, by posting 59 points. Anything above 50 is regarded as expansion.

Jeffrey Liker and Mike Rother, world renowned authorities on the Toyota Production System, argue that lean is not just about using tools to improve operational processes, but more about perfecting the improvement process itself.

Although Toyota maintains a narrow lead as the strongest automobile brand in the United States, Ford leads the way in factors that matter most to consumers, according to Consumer Reports' 2011 Car Brand Perception Survey.