Who Was Kiichiro Toyoda?

Kiichiro Toyoda founded what would become one of the world’s biggest automakers, fostering the Japanese automotive industry in the process.

Building a Brand and a Philosophy

Toyota Motor Corporation is today one of the world’s largest companies. In recent years, Toyota had consistently traded back-and-forth the title of world’s largest automotive manufacturer with Volkswagen Motor Works. A direct line can be drawn from Toyota’s contemporary successes to the vision and management philosophies of the company’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda.

Toyoda pioneered automotive manufacturing in Japan, not only laying the groundwork for his own company to eventually thrive but sowing the seeds for what would become one of Japan’s largest and most lucrative industries. In doing so, Toyoda influenced more than just the building of cars, his philosophies of management, logistics, and manufacturing have since been adopted around the world and are today considered best practices in sectors ranging from the automotive industry to software development.

Early Days

Kiichiro Toyoda was born June 11th, 1894. He was the eldest son of Sakichi Toyoda, founder of the Toyoda Loom Works. Sakichi Toyoda was both a shrewd businessman and a creative inventor, patenting the automatic loom and eventually earning the moniker of Japan’s Thomas Edison for his innovations. Kiichiro was a dedicated student, inheriting his father’s passion for engineering. He attended the Tokyo Imperial University in 1920, after which he briefly studied law before going to work at his father’s business.

As part of his new job, Kiichiro left Japan for an international tour of weaving factories in the United States and England in 1921. The booming automotive industry in the US awed Kiichiro, who felt sure the industry would soon grow in Japan as well. While working at Toyoda Loom Works, Kiichiro continued to contemplate automotive manufacturing. In 1929, he made a return trip to the US, this time to visit American auto plants in Detroit to learn what he could about car making.

The First Toyoda Cars

In 1933, Kiichrio established an automotive department within Toyoda Industries Corporation and set to work reverse engineering a Chevrolet, involving a complete disassembly and reassembly, to learn as much as possible about how American automakers built their cars. The challenges for Kiichiro and his fledgling company were not just engineering ones. Japan in the early 1930s lacked the heavy industry and raw materials for something as intensive as automobile manufacturing. But Kiichiro was not deterred.

The first prototype car, the A1 was completed in 1935 to debut at the Tokyo Motor Show. The A1 borrowed heavily from American designs including those of DeSoto, Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler. Indeed, the A1’s body is clearly reminiscent of the Chrysler Airflow. The final production version, the Toyoda AA Model was released in 1936.

At this same time, Toyoda was working on their G1 truck. The G1, it turns out, was plagued with mechanical issues and often broke down. Though this was not the best look for Kiichiro’s venture, he used these challenges as an opportunity. When a G1 would break down, Toyoda and company would personally show up to assess the problem and he and his mechanics would work to get the truck working again. This dedication to customer satisfaction and addressing problems at their source became company hallmarks.

When Toyoda Became Toyota

The Toyota Motor Corporation was officially founded in 1937. The name was a modified from Toyoda to Toyota by the company’s first president and Kiichiro’s brother-in-law, Rizaburo Toyoda. The reasons were two-fold. First, Toyoda translates to rice paddy in Japanese, lending an undesirably agricultural connotation. Second, the Japanese character for Toyota is exactly eight strokes, which made it simpler to write and fortuitous as eight is considered a lucky number in Japanese culture.

Jidoka and Other Innovations

Also in 1937, Kiichiro made another return visit to Detroit to study Ford’s manufacturing practices, seeking innovations he could apply back home in Japan. Kiichiro combined the insights he garnered from his trips to America with his own and those of his father. It had been Sakichi Toyoda who had first implemented Jidoka, a management and manufacturing philosophy that identified defects and problems early on to expedite fixes. Kiichiro instituted his father’s “Five Whys,” a method of linear inquiry meant to seek out root causes.

Additionally, Kiichiro pioneered what became known as the “Just-In-Time” method of manufacturing. Just-In-Time involved reducing overhead and inventory costs by ordering and receiving parts and components for production just-in-time. This method reduces supply-chain inefficiencies and has been adopted worldwide and across innumerable industries.

Kiichiro’s approach to engineering and manufacturing problems was Genchi Genbutsu, which directly translates to “real location, real thing” but is usually referred to as the “go and see” method. The idea was to investigate on sight and in person, rather than theorizing solutions.

Taken together, the above comprises the philosophies behind the Toyota Production System. While Kiichiro Toyoda is best known for the car company he founded, it is arguable his greatest lasting influence was on industrial management as the Toyota Production System and its principles are studied and emulated all over the world.

World War II and Its Aftermath 

1937 was a pivotal year for Toyota for yet another reason, the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War (between Japan and China). As would soon happen in Europe and the US, the Japanese government put a halt to domestic automotive manufacturing in favor of production for the war effort. This meant building military trucks and munitions for Toyota, rather than passenger cars. As the scope of Japan’s imperial ambitions expanded into war with the US, Toyota, along with other domestic carmakers, was taken over by the Japanese government. Toyota became a designated munitions manufacturer. Though Kiichiro could not build any cars, the ban on automotive manufacturing did not extend to research and development, to which Toyota continued to devote time and resources.

In the aftermath of the war, Japan and its economy were in literal shambles. If parts and raw materials were hard to come by before the war, they were double hard to get now. Production for Toyota did not resume until 1947, when the government lifted its ban on domestic automobile production. Toyota’s first post-war car was the SA Model, a.k.a. the Toyopet, released in 1947. The Toyopet did not sell well, and fierce competition from Ford and GM did not help, either. Given their scale, the US companies could market a car in Japan for thousands of yen less than it took Toyota to build one.

One bright spot in the post-war years was Toyota’s contract with the US government to work on military vehicles. The contracts helped keep the company afloat through tough times and allowed Toyota engineers to gain valuable knowledge along the way. The advent of the Korean War resulted in orders for “jeeps” (which was the genesis for the Toyota Land Cruiser) and military trucks.

Labor unrest and strikes had become common in Japan in the late 1940s and early 50s. Strikes at Toyota halted work and Kiichiro’s refusal to meet organizers’ demand put his company’s fortunes in jeopardy. Stress and illness forced Kiichiro Toyoda to step down from the company’s presidency in June of 1950. Following his departure, the strike ended, work resumed and his cousin Eiji Toyoda eventually took over the helm at Toyota. Eiji proved a skilled businessman and leader at the company, overseeing the launch of the Toyopet Crown, Toyota’s first original design, and the expansion of Toyota into a major international automaker over the next two decades.

Kiichiro Toyoda’s Legacy

Following his departure from the company he founded, Kiichiro Toyoda spent most every day working on the design of a small helicopter. He died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage March 27th, 1952.

Toyota has become one of the world’s largest companies and its Corolla sedan is the best-selling car of all time surpassing even the Volkswagen Beetle. The Toyota brand is a household name across the globe. And yet, it is Kiichiro Toyoda’s management philosophies, the Toyota Production System aka the Toyota Way, that arguably have had an equal or greater impact.

Today, companies worldwide look to emulate Kiichiro Toyoda’s example by seeking solutions at the root of problems, soliciting the expertise of workers to find solutions and recognize errors, and emphasizing efficiency with his Just-In-Time method.

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