From A Loom Factory To What They Are Today- Toyota
-Always be faithful to your duties
-Always be studious and creative
-Always be practical and avoid frivolousness
-Always strive to build a homelike atmosphere at work
-Always have respect for God and remember to be grateful at all times
The Five Main Principles of Toyoda, something that Toyota still lives by.
Toyota is the thirteenth-largest company in the world by revenue, employing over 340,000 people. Toyota sold over 10 million vehicles in 2019. Hard to imagine that a company that started out weaving cloths using loom machines, has become what they have.
Sakichi Toyoda was born in a poor family where his father was a farmer and a carpenter. As days went by, his father saw an interest in Sakichi for carpentry. Sakichi grew up under Meiji Emperor, who is known for opening Japan to the modern world, Meiji send Japanese diplomats to Europe in order to study European forms of modernization and education systems. These diplomats would return to Japan and go through a period of trial and error, before recording their findings. And these findings would be read by none other than Sakichi. Sakichi became a regular reader, he reportedly invited other students to read and discuss their findings. But there was something within Sakichi that told him there is a bigger world out there.
At 20, Sakichi decided to leave his village and travel to Tokyo. He saw that Tokyo was full of fascinating technologies, as he was traveling he developed a passion for machines and engines. He decided to serve his country, by creating something new. After returning to his village, Sakichi started to develop a handloom system, using trial and error methods, Sakichi experimented with various looms in the barn and destroyed pretty much every loom he worked on. People started questioning his intentions and called him crazy. But Sakichi kept on pushing. Finally, at 23, he had developed his first successful invention. It was known as the Toyoda wooden handloom.
Contrary to the traditional loom system, his design only required one hand to operate and improve the quality by 40%. Two years later, to future improve his design he started a small factory in Tokyo, offering the Toyoda wooden handloom system to many. Building the factory was a way for Sakichi to work on his passion for invention and also to make some money, from what he had already invented. But unfortunately, the factory had to shut down after a year of operation. Closing down the factory did not stop him from continuing to improve his design. In 1984 Sakichi welcomed his first child, Kiichiro Toyoda.
Sakichi wanted a system that would operate the loom automatically, so in 1896, the Toyoda power loom was invented which was Japan’s first power loom built of steel and wood. One of his first customers was Tohachi Ishikawa, who later became his partner. Sakichi’s new design used oil to run machines; this was the introduction of automation in Toyota. The year was 1899, the company started facing some economic challenges, Sakichi had to abandon his plans and left the company. He however did not abandon his passion and started a company focusing solely on invention and research. He managed to develop a design that would automatically replenish the weft yarn, but when it came time to test out the machine, it failed. Sakichi learned that
an invention should never be placed in the hands of others unless it is developed as a practical product with useful social results
At the end of the war in 1914, Sakichi introduces a new spinning facility at the mill, staying afloat from economic conditions during World War I, the spinning and weaving business continued expanding. And in 1918 Toyoda Boshoku was established with investments from relatives and close friends. After establishing the company Sakichi decided to travel to China, where he studies the weaving industry and developed a plant that was approximately 356,000 SQFT.
By now his son Kiichiro Toyoda joined business. As Sakichi was traveling back and forth between Shanghai and Nagoya, he worked with his son to complete the automatic loom design. Finally, the team, created a groundbreaking design, the automatic textile loom, the Toyoda Model G reduced defects, and if something was to go wrong while operating, the production process would be stopped automatically until the issue was resolved.
Following the successful development of the automatic loom, on November 17, 1926, the incorporation meeting of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, was held at the head office in Nagoya City. This meeting would soon change the demographic of the company, by introducing Model G to China and America.
As time went by Model G became well known throughout the world, impressing a British Company, the Platt Brothers. An agreement was signed between Toyoda and the Platt Brothers transferring the patent rights. This agreement introduced Toyoda to the world by expanding in markets other than Japan, America & China. With the expansion came sad news for Toyoda corporation, Sakichi, the man who devoted his 63 years to invention, passed away on October 1930.
The idea behind Toyota began after the passing of Sakichi, in the 1930’s. His son Kiichiro Toyoda started experimenting with car engines in Japan. It wasn’t until 1934 that they finished their first engine which they called Type A. They tested the Type A engine in different vehicles for about a year and then developed the Model A1 in 1935. In 1937 Toyoda became Toyota Motor Company, the change to the name from Toyoda to Toyota was supposedly meant to make it easier to pronounce.
By now the company had to face another challenge, the year was 1939, the beginning of the second world war. At the end of 1945, the U.S. military gave Toyota permission to begin peacetime production. Toyota continued making products in Japan, and their first product after the War was the Model SA.
10 years after the War Toyota was making 8,400 vehicles annually, and 20 years after War they were making 600,000. In 1959, the company opened its first plant outside Japan — in Brazil. From that point on, Toyota maintained a philosophy of localizing both production and design of its products. And since then, Toyota has been what they have, if it was not for Sakichi to read books by the diplomats that traveled to Europe, Toyota may have never existed.
