Toyota Motor Corp announced Monday a new development strategy to increase efficiency.
The Japanese automaker will develop multiple models at same time to increase portion of common parts within them, which is said to reduce the cost by 30 percent. The company will also grant bigger authority to chief engineers and slash the number of executives involved in the design review process to reduce layers of decision-making.
“The feeling at the time was, ‘If we build it, they will come’. Instead of developing what customers would want next, we were making cars that would rake in sales,” Chief Executive Akio Toyoda told , reflecting its sales at its headquarters in Japan.
“Toyota's problem was that it had too many filters,” said Tokuo Fukuichi, the chief designer.
“When you have that many people weighing in, you end up developing cars by eliminating the negatives, not by creating something positive, by taking risks,” Fukuichi added.
Toyota’s new strategy resembles what Honda did in previous years, which was cutting down decision-making layers and encouraging more design freedom.
Greater cooperation between the planning and design divisions will increase more design freedom and new platforms will feature a lower centre of gravity that would improve styling and vehicle handling, Toyota said.
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