Kiichiro Toyoda
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Born in 1894 as the eldest son of Sakichi Toyoda, he graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tokyo Imperial University's Faculty of Engineering (now the University of Tokyo) in 1920. At Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, founded in 1926, he worked as Managing Director on improving the automatic loom, and the money from transferring its British patent to Platt Brothers became the seed capital for automobile research. In September 1933 he set up an automobile manufacturing division inside the company. His capital backing lay with the loom company: as of March 1938, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works held 75.17% of the shares, while Kiichiro Toyoda's personal stake was 4.17%.
Selection
When Toyota Motor Co. was founded on August 28, 1937 with capital of ¥12 million, Risaburo Toyoda became President, and Kiichiro Toyoda, as Executive Vice President, ran the automobile business in practice. He became President in January 1941, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the time the Koromo plant had been turned over to increased production of military trucks, and passenger car development had effectively stopped. The task of running the business spun off from the loom works as a dedicated automaker fell to the man who had conceived it.
Initiatives
In November 1938 he completed the head plant on a site of about 2 million square meters in Koromo, Aichi Prefecture, housing everything from casting to assembly on a single site. He envisioned a flow process with machines lined up in process order, making only what was needed in the quantities needed, but under wartime materials controls it never took hold. He set up Toyoda Steel Works (now Aichi Steel) in 1940 and Toyoda Machine Works (now JTEKT) in 1941 to produce steel and machine tools in-house, and in 1948 split off the procurement function into Nisshin Tsusho (now Toyota Tsusho). In May 1949 the company listed its shares on the stock exchanges.
Career
Career
Toyoda Spinning and Weaving
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1921 | Joined |
Toyoda Automatic Loom Works
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1933 | Established Automotive Department |
Toyota Motor Co.
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Aug 1937 | Founded |
| Jan 1941 | President |
| Jun 1950 | Resigned as President |
| Jul 1950 | Stepped down as President |