Word: toyotas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Toyota Motor Co., Japan's largest automaker, is a prime example. Like all car manufacturers, Toyota finds it increasingly difficult to hire young men to fill achingly monotonous jobs on the assembly line, which rolls off 60 cars an hour. "The work is simple and boring, and it is hard to get a sense of accomplishment from it," says Kentaro Sasaki, a 25-year-old personnel officer, who spent six months on the line. But whatever their feelings, the plant's workers apply themselves diligently. "They try to increase their output to show that they...
...company's attitude toward the worker is also important in keeping labor peace. It is often said by economists that a Japanese company is not in business so much to make a profit as to fulfill its obligation to employees. Like most Japanese firms, Toyota practices a silken but binding paternalism designed to make the company's 38,500 employees feel that they are part of a large family rather than corporate cogs. Veteran workers are encouraged to spend hours of their own time helping newcomers improve their skills, and bosses generally attend subordinates' weddings...
...common with all Japanese workers, Toyota employees are never laid off-even during the slack period of model changeovers. The comforting sense of security is exceedingly important. The only serious strike Toyota ever had was in 1950, after 2,000 workers were let go. Before the strikers returned to their jobs, President Kiichiro Toyoda had to accept personal responsibility for the firings and commit a kind of corporate hara-kiri by resigning...
Foreign automen insist that they will withstand the challenge. G.M. and Ford each hope to sell 400,000 of their minicars during the new model year. Volkswagen predicts that its sales will rise by 12% to 600,000, and Japan's Toyota and Datsun expect to sell a combined total of 250,000 cars to U.S. customers. Unless the market for subcompacts expands faster than most analysts anticipate, somebody is likely to be disappointed...
...help Kwannon in this task, Toyota is trying to produce a safer car. There is much room for improvement. Since last summer, when Japan's automakers listed 2,500,000 cars as potentially defective, Toyota has recalled 971,275 autos in Japan and 58,525 Corollas in the U.S. Last week the company called in 47,879 of its Mark II series in the U.S. to check the brake master-cylinder system. Kamiya stressed that the shrine is intended for victims of accidents in all kinds of cars. Last year the worldwide death toll was about 175,000, including...