Global architecture

Dynamic Growth Based on Making Ever-Better Cars

The Toyota Global Vision announced in March 2011 describes our values and the kind of company we aspire to be. We believe that focusing on building ever-better cars will bring about dynamic growth, so we are engaging in revolutionizing our carmaking to bring more substance to our efforts.

The first of our medium- tolong-term initiatives is reforming our corporate culture. We seek to revitalize our venture spirit by reforming our consciousness in light of the Global Vision, and through other efforts such as joint ventures with other companies. We are also focusing on the areas of development, design, and procurement, for example by creating an innovative synthesis of development and design through a new carmaking policy aimed at building better cars. In addition, we are strengthening supply chains to minimize parts procurement risk, and in the area of production we are also reforming our monozukuri (conscientious manufacturing) structure as the basis for production technology and structure innovation. By introducing cars that meet local needs in rapidly growing emerging markets, we seek an increase in the share of our global sales made up by emerging markets, from 40% to 50%.

We will bring all our strengths to bear to quickly achieve a resilient revenue base by decreasing our susceptibility to the impact of the strong yen. One way to do so is to increase local procurement and manufacturing. In this way we will forge a path to continuous growth based on the Global Vision.

Synthesizing Design and Planning for Better Basic Performance and Improved Products

We are reforming our development structure so as to make better cars. We thoroughly research the factors that go into making a better car, and have divided our carmaking into four zones: cars specialized to meet tastes and car sense (especially sports cars); fleet and personal transportation vehicles; trucks, buses, and other vehicles with a social purpose; and finally, next-generation vehicles, such as green vehicles and concepts. We try to come up with better cars for each zone by incorporating the design and performance features our customers have in mind so as to meet their expectations.

Initiatives Overview

We are reforming our developmental structure by engaging in design and development improvement, localized carmaking, and organizational/structural improvements. We are reorganizing our organizational structures around the chief engineers, who are in closest proximity to consumers, by strengthening their authority within the decision-making process in design and other areas in their capacity as general development coordinators. Also, we are making steady progress in reforming the development structure through the introduction of our new framework for developing better cars, called the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA). The TNGA provides the foundation for the growth that will propel the opening up of the next generation by strengthening Toyota's international competitiveness.

Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA)

One facet of Toyota's efforts to build ever-better cars is the introduction of TNGA, which revolutionizes the vehicle development framework through the blending of planning and design.

While of course seeking to boost basic vehicle performance, we are also establishing new platforms based on the TNGA that optimize design freedom and ergonomics, such as driving position. The TNGA provides a foundation for grouping development, which enables the standardization of parts and components across different models, improving the efficiency of the development process while reducing costs.

The introduction of the TNGA and subsequent parts standardization results in manpower and cost reductions, which leads to the making of better cars through efforts that span activities such as technology, sales, procurement and production technology by freeing up manpower for use in development. This leads to product improvements in areas such as basic performance and design improvement, costcompetitiveness, and quality assurance. The TNGA will be implemented over the coming years as we successively introduce new vehicle models.

Improve the Development Structure

Toyota is moving forward with improving development capacity, localized carmaking, and organizational/structural improvements so as to improve our structure for continuously producing better cars.

To improve development capacity we have set a target of 30% improvement in development capacity* for the end of 2012 compared to 2009 by improving all the factors involved in development, such as development tools (design, prototypes, testing), processes, and human resources/ability. We are also improving development efficiency by increasing the authority of the chief engineers (CEs), who are in closest proximity to consumers and who coordinate model development. This will improve development efficiency by speeding up the decision-making process.

Toyota is placing regional general managers in charge of localizing carmaking in each region, and, by developing ties with local sales and R&D units, Toyota can ascertain the needs of each market and improve both quality and product appeal.

Our organizational structure improvements center on making the CE the overall coordinator in vehicle development, with responsibility for each area of technical development, so as to foster specialized technologies and long-term development leading to the ever-better cars envisioned by the CEs. As the overall coordinator of vehicle development, the CE also has a say in the vehicle design evaluation and testing conducted in-house.