Construction of the
Automotive Department Assembly Plant: Staged Expansion of Production Capacity
Kiichiro Toyoda expanded automobile manufacturing capacity
in stages, as had been done for automatic looms. The process started with the
construction of a prototype plant, followed by the production of prototypes of
the Model A1 passenger car and the Model G1 truck, construction of an
automobile assembly plant, and the expansion of passenger car and truck
production. When Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. was licensed under the
Automotive Manufacturing Industries Law, a plan to construct the Koromo Plant
as a full-scale automobile production plant was developed.
In order to expand automobile production facilities, Toyoda
Automatic Loom Works increased its capital from three million yen to six
million on July 9, 1935, with Toyoda Boshoku Sho underwriting the entire
increase. Toyoda Automatic Loom Works began expanding production facilities
when the quality of the Model G1 truck stabilized and production targets of
five units per day and 150 units per month were set in January 1936. The scale
of production went beyond that of a prototype plant, and this marked the first
step towards full-scale mass production.
Aerial view of the
Kariya automobile assembly plant
The automobile assembly plant was constructed in Kariya-cho,
located about one kilometer to the northeast of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.
Approximately 48,400 square meters of the Chuo Spinning & Weaving Company
site was leased, and construction was completed in May 1936. The plant included
a body assembly shop, body painting shop, frame assembly shop, chassis and body
assembly shop, plating shop, assembly part storage site, service part
warehouse, and other facilities. When the Koromo Plant was completed in 1938,
the automobile assembly plant was renamed the Kariya Plant.
Following completion in 1927, the Toyoda Automatic Loom
Works plant was expanded several times, and when Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. was
spun off in 1937, it was manufacturing looms, steel, and automobiles. The
central portion of the plant included spinning and weaving machinery
manufacturing facilities and a steelworks, while the automobile-related
manufacturing facilities were located to the north in the No. 3 Ironworks
(suspensions), half of the No. 4 Foundry, the No. 3 Foundry, and the machine
tool plant and to the south in the automobile body shop (formerly a prototype
plant), automobile engine shop (also a former prototype plant), and the
electrical equipment shop. These automobile-related facilities were referred to
as the manufacturing plant and were divided north to south. The various
components manufactured there were transported to the automobile assembly shop
where they were assembled into trucks and passenger cars. This arrangement did
not allow for efficient production activities.
Selection of the
Koromo Plant Site and Development of the Construction Plan
Toyoda Automatic Loom Works made a formal decision to enter
the automotive business on September 1, 1933 and began researching plant sites
in order to construct a full-fledged automobile production plant. Kiichiro
Toyoda focused on the Kariya-cho, Hekikai-gun area and investigated the
neighboring Odaka-cho, Chita-gun, Higashiura-cho, and Koromo-cho,
Nishikamo-gun, among other sites.
Koromo-cho selected as the plant site because of the
following advantages that it offered:
1.The site was located in an expansive, barren plain known
as Ronjigahara where nearly two million square meters of land could be acquired
at low cost.
2.Transfer of production facilities and materials was
possible using the Mikawa Railway (now the Meitetsu Mikawa Line of Nagoya
Railroad Co., Ltd.). In addition, the site had firm ground suitable for plant
construction as well as ample, high-quality subterranean water (the underflow
of the Yahagi River).
3.Abundant electricity generated from hydroelectric power on
the Yahagi River system was available, and inexpensive electricity could be
obtained from Yahagi Hydroelectric Company.
4.The Koromogahara Airfield, which was built in Tsuchihashi,
was convenient for the aircraft business.
With regard to the fourth of these points, when the Koromo
Plant was completed in November 1938, Toyota Motor Co. Ltd. established an
Aircraft Research Department, hired Bunzaburo Kataoka3 and one other employee
on May 6, 1939, and began helicopter research. In light of the research results
including testing of prototype propellers using the Koromogahara Airfield, it
seems likely that the presence of the airfield was a major factor in selecting
the site.
In November 1933, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works requested that
Koromo-cho Mayor Juichi Nakamura act on its behalf for the purchase of the
land. In July of the following year, the Koromo-cho Council established a
committee to induce companies to construct plants in the region. The land
purchase negotiations proceeded with some difficulty, but in December of 1935,
Toyoda Automatic Loom Works acquired approximately two million square meters at
a total cost of 228,611.64 yen.
A plan to construct a plant on 660,000 square meters
(approximately one-third of the site) was adopted, and following a
ground-breaking ceremony on December 14, 1935, land preparation operations
began. The work of designing an integrated production plant that could produce
a total of 2,000 vehicles per month-500 passenger cars and 1500 trucks-also
started. The design of each specialized facility of the plant was assigned to
manufacturing specialists, with the foundry assigned to Umeji Harada and
Shigekatsu Ikeda4, the forging and thermal processing shop assigned to Shoichi
Saito, the machining shop assigned to Jiro Iwaoka and Chihiro Shima5, the
stamping and body shop assigned to Takeaki Shirai6, the painting and plating
shop assigned to Fujinobu Kimura, the assembly shop assigned to Chihiro Shima,
and the testing and research facility assigned to Fujinobu Kimura. Most of the
plant designers were engineers in their 20s.
Takatoshi Kan, Shoichi Saito, and Eiji Toyoda reviewed the
design drawings prepared by the designers and prepared proposal. The design
drawings for the entire plant were completed in January 1937, and a briefing
was held to explain the bidding process.
Source: TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
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