Abstract
Sakichi Toyoda became famous as the inventor of the automatic loom such as a non-stop shuttle change type Toyoda automatic loom. Following in his fathers footsteps, Kiichiro Toyoda devoted his life into the manufacturing of cars. He founded, in 1984, the Toyota motor corporation. Toyota is a Japanese family brand. Its head office is located in Toyota and Bunkyō Tōkyō. The main production plant is located in Japan, even though there are several other production centers all over the world. Toyota has 299 394 employees (in 2006) and has an annual turnover of 216 US$ billions. The most direct competitors of Toyota are Honda, Subaru, Suzuki, Nissan, Mazda and Mitsubishi Motors. One of the key factors in the success of Toyota is their production system and linking concepts such as the famous "Toyotisme" or "just in time". In 2007, Toyota produced 2.348.000 cars and became the first world manufacturer by dethroning General motor, which had been number one for the past seventy-two years. It created its luxury brand Lexus to directly compete with German luxury car manufacturers BMW and Mercedes.
