NOTA |
(★)(This is the rich and multifaceted account of the life of one man --Eiji Toyoda-- whose achievements and success parallel the growth and prosperity of both Toyota Motor Corporation and the automobile industry in general in Japan. /It was exactly fifty years ago, in 1937, that the Toyota Motor Company was first established as a spin-off from Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, one of the world´s leading loom manufacturers, headed at that time by Sakichi Toyoda, renowned as Japan´s ´King of Inventors.´ It was, in fact, the overseas sale of the patent rights to one of his machines that provided the seed-money for developing and test-building Toyota´s first automobiles. That fledgling company founded by Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi´s son and the cousin of the author, grew in the short span of a half-century to the leader it is today. /Eiji Toyoda graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and soon found himself assigned the task of setting up a research laboratory in Tokyo to study automobile construction and manufacture. The early years of the company were fraught with all sorts of difficulties, not least among them the material shortages during World War II and the aftereffects of defeat. Toyota was given permission by the occupation authorities to recommence vehicle manufacture in late 1945, but it was with the Korean War and the resultant steady stream of orders from the U.S. armed forces that the company was able to enjoy the financial stability that propelled it on the road to growth. /In the 1970s, events forced Toyota to achieve even greater feats of engineering. Two oil crises and increasingly stringent emissions control regulations, seemingly insurmountable hurdles at first, in fact resulted in an efficiency-conscious production and management system that is now the envy of the world. Timely business and financial reorganizations in the face of change have put Toyota at the forefront of the auto industry, and this book describes both these and the fascinating innovations, such as the ´just-in-time´ system of parts delivery, that have won the respect and the admiration of the world´s auto industry. /With over 8 percent of the global market, Toyota is undeniably a giant in the automobile industry, and this story of the chairman and his company makes for engrossing reading both as history and for the many insights it provides.) |