YEN TROUBLES: Toyota Executive Vice President Atsushi Niimi said that the strong yen has forced the automaker to get very lean in order to compete. The dollar has traded at 79-yen levels recently, down from about 100 yen in 2009.
OUT OF THE BOX: Niimi said the key was “a total elimination of waste,” such as making assembly lines shorter and more flexible so that profit is generated, even at small volumes. He showed a time-lapse video, in which a line was extended in just 78 minutes by moving chunks of it and putting it together differently as though they were Lego parts.
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ROUGH CENTURY: Toyota was on a steady growth path through 2007, but stumbled with the financial crisis and its massive global recalls three years ago. The earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan last year followed by flooding in Thailand, which disrupted supplies, added to its woes. Japanese companies have also been hit by an electricity power crunch because of the nuclear crisis caused by the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
