Toyota honorary chairman Shoichiro Toyoda father of Akio dies at 97

[Tragic Bronson]

Toyota honorary chairman Shoichiro Toyoda dies at 97

Toyoda, a third-generation scion of the founding family, is credited with establishing a culture of quality control at the firm.

www.japantimes.co.jp

Toyota founder's son, who led global growth, dies at 97

Shoichiro Toyoda, who as a son of the company’s founder oversaw Toyota’s expansion into international markets, has died. He was 97.

apnews.com

Shoichiro Toyoda, pilot behind Toyota's U.S. expansion and Lexus launch, dies at 97

Toyoda, father of current Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, piloted his family's namesake company through the trade tensions of the 1980s. He also represented the Toyoda clan on the board for 57 years, making him the automaker's longest-serving director.

www.autonews.com

Toyoda deftly piloted Toyota through these challenges and then doubled down on the U.S. by introducing Lexus there with the launch of the LS 400 in 1989. While the top secret Lexus project was directly overseen by then-Chairman Eiji Toyoda, development began under Shoichiro in 1983.

The steps that led to the automaker's sterling reputation for quality, and to Lexus, all began with a car that was rejected by U.S. buyers as underpowered and unsafe for American roads.

Lexus challenge

In the 1960s, Toyoda played a critical role in establishing the company's famed quality control system, which eventually undergirded its brand identity as a builder of reliable cars.

That insistence on quality control enabled Lexus to mount its audacious challenge of the German luxury brands.

In developing Lexus vehicles, "We asked for precision that exceeded the limits of machine tools in those days, and the production technology side said it was impossible," Toyoda wrote in a multicolumn series called "My Personal History" for Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper in April 2014.

"We bolstered cooperation beyond the departments and reviewed the precision of our tools, solving problems one by one. We could exceed Mercedes and BMW in precision of joint fitting by using robots on a mass-production line. Mercedes and BMW were processing it manually. It challenged the very norms of manufacturing."