Toyota to change production structure to boost profitability

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:18 March 26 2010]
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2008 Toyota Sequoia

Toyota Motor Corp. is to change its production structure to let each plant produce specific vehicles, in an attempt to increase the company's efficiency and profitability, said reports from the central Japanese city of Nagoya on Thursday.

Under the plan, the automaker will produce vehicles in a single plant. Currently, Toyota in certain cases produces its models in stages at a number of different factories.

The new production models will also see the production of the company's various types of vehicles, such as compact cars and minivans, consolidated into specific factories.

According to the reports, the company will look to equip a number of plants with the hardware to produce compact cars, for which it expects demand to grow in the future.

The announcement of the plan comes in the aftermath of a series of recalls due to faults with cars that could cause fatalities that caused the company's senior management to reflect on their business model.

Recently, Toyota President Akio Toyoda publicly apologized for the faults and said that his company's massive international expansion over the past few years went against the corporate ethos that Toyota had developed over the years.