Toyota invests in several plants worldwide to get ahead in competition
New plant in Mexico
A new plant will be built in Guanajuato, Mexico, to support improved competitiveness in North America. The plant will produce Corolla taking into consideration forecasted steady, mid and long-term growth in North America. Building this plant will be one of Toyota's efforts to realign its North American manufacturing operations and begin a new approach to plant building; featuring new work processes, including Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) production engineering innovations, and will be a model for global manufacturing.
Realignment of North American manufacturing operations
To more efficiently supply high-quality and attractive vehicles, Toyota will continue regional consolidation of North American production based on vehicle body type and size.
In 2019, production of the Corolla will be shifted from the plant in Cambridge Ontario, Canada (TMMC) to the newly opened plant in Mexico, and the plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi (TMMMS) will continue to produce the Corolla; consolidating compact vehicle production to the Southern United States and Mexico.
TMMC will then focus its production on mid-sized vehicles of higher value, along with Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc. (TMMI).
First TNGA plant
From the ground up, this plant will be the first designed to fully maximize the merits of TNGA, like significantly reduced equipment investment for model change-over realized by modularization of major components made possible by unified engineering. As a TNGA model plant, "smart car-making" results and knowledge will be rolled out to other regions and other plants in the future.
Expansion at GTMC
By restructuring its existing lines at GTMC and building an additional facility by the end of 2017, Toyota will create a plant that is resilient and competitive; prepared for future TNGA innovations and capacity increase. Toyota views it as vital to further improve the competitiveness of the existing lines and respond to future demand for stable growth in the Chinese market; the largest market in the world and where a number of automakers have been competing. At the same time, GTMC will collaborate with engineering, production and procurement on effective use of the existing supplier network and cost reduction activities at its R&D center.
Restructuring of the existing production lines
GTMC will consolidate its vehicle production by vehicle size and pursue improvements based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and increased automation, to realize higher quality and productivity.
New facility construction
Following the restructuring and resulting higher efficiencies of the existing lines, GTMC will operate all three lines with the current number of employees. A competitive new facility will be created by implementing productivity improvement activities conducted on the existing lines and new innovative production engineering technologies. At the same time, it will work on smart plant-building, effectively utilizing existing equipment that is adjacent to the current facilities.
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