[bblost]

Thanks a lot for this super awesome thread(no pun intended ).

The Toyoda story shows how a sharp intellect has no boundaries. Very inspiring and highly motivational.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

If you skipped the looms, you missed the entire story. About 90% of effort in writing this story went towards that. The Toyota museum is mostly about the looms and less about cars.

First time just started from the water jet power looms., but now read everything from the beginning itself.
Particularly that the seed capital came from selling the power loom patent. No wonder they are still proud of their looms.
Read somewhere that Toyota name came from rice fields or somewhat.

[bantejas]

Nice one Samu-san, can get where you get your handle from !

And come to think about it, we all always (Ok, most of us), try to compare the Tata/M&M steads with toyota, land lover etc, who have a lot more history (in terms of years as well). We should give our dear indian manufacturers a break for sometime, don't you think so?! First toyota car came in 1936, first tata car came in 1991!

Brilliant post Samurai!

tejas

[Thilak29]

How did they arrive at Toyota when founder's name was Toyoda? Any trivia on that?

My bad! I just a post below !

[ajslave]

Brilliant article, Samurai. It's true that many people don't know that Toyota started off with looms. Even I didn't, until i got a job in a Toyota plant (Yes, here in Bangalore) which is now about to become the global hub for spinning machines. If anyone's interested, I'd be glad to share some stuff about the insider's view- only as much as I can share and still keep my job of course

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by ajslave

Even I didn't, until i got a job in a Toyota plant (Yes, here in Bangalore) which is now about to become the global hub for spinning machines.

Wow, Toyota has a powerloom plant in Bangalore? I didn't know that.

Originally Posted by ajslave

If anyone's interested, I'd be glad to share some stuff about the insider's view- only as much as I can share and still keep my job of course

You should do that. However, please get the content approved by your superiors so that you don't get into any trouble.

[rajshenoy]

Wow... awesome .. So Samurai visits the land of the Samurai

I like such reads and its really interesting how organizations grow into what they are currently. And for every one organization becoming successful, there are hundreds which vanish. And its amazing achievement for an organization to become global leader from humble begining.

[khan_sultan]

Quite an interesting story. Never would have guessed that Toyota started off with handlooms.
Many an organization that is famous now actually started ages ago in another industry, totally dis-connected to what their core focus is now.

Originally Posted by Samurai

....

Now let’s see a fully manual loom in action. You can see that the ladies are doing three of the motions, (i) Shedding is done by moving the foot operated heddle (ii) Insertion is done using the right hand, that is the jerking the wires left and right alternatively. You can see the rapidly moving fly shuttle in the first 20 seconds of the video. (iii) The beat-up is done using the left hand.

==============

In many parts of India, handloom is still a very big cottage industry/employer and such looms still exist in India. Manually operated by combination of Hand/legs, operated in shifts, 24/7. They make a racket of a sound and imagine a whole locality in a town having such looms.

[moralfibre]

Samu, I cannot think of another bhpian than you who could have done full justice to the story.

That said, here's a Toyopet I had clicked at the California Mille Miglia in 2009 at Nob Hill SFO:





I presume they still hold good value despite their "Hyundai" like status way back when they joined the American market.

[shinuak]

Great writeup, very interesting facts about the auto giant which, I believe most of us would not have known otherwise. It was like a full course sumptuous meal spread out nicely. Does the museum have any section for current and future concepts ? Would have loved to see that as well.

[Arch-Angel]

Ah Samurai sama, a wonderful report! I love japan like crazy as we all have a lot to learn from them! Respect to elders and others in general, wish India of today had atleast an essence of this. Mr Toyoda's story is literally from rags(clothing/handlooms ) to riches. Proves what hardwork/perserverance and creativity can give to the world. I loved the old automobiles, but i do feel something, that automobiles of the yesteryears seemed meaningful and served their purpose quite well, something which i feel is absent in the production cars these days..

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

That said, here's a Toyopet I had clicked at the California Mille Miglia in 2009 at Nob Hill SFO:

I presume they still hold good value despite their "Hyundai" like status way back when they joined the American market.

Some interesting history of Toyopet in American market is available in this PDF.

[IronH4WK]

very nice and informative article on Toyota's history. never would have thought they started with looms! even more surprised to see Gandhiji's charka there!

thanks for sharing Samurai-san.

[roshan_cruise]

Thanks for the link,Samurai.

Talk about catching your tongue in your mouth... i meant the numerology comment as a joke, but the link proved that my fluke was actually one of the reason

[9thsphinx]

This thread does justice to Toyota and its history. What a fantastic way of narrating your experience and putting up images and videos just where we readers expect them to be. The flow of the content was almost like having a virtual tour assistant giving us a tour of the facility.

Fantastic. Rated five stars.