Dear Team Members,
I have a quick message for you today about our newest product innovation. We are starting our journey to be the first automotive manufacturer to produce an alternative fuel truck. This will be called the Tonenergi project. We will be starting with the smaller Tacoma/Hilux frame with hopes of producing an engine capable of powering the Tundra and commercial vehicles while meeting our current towing capacity limits. We will be watching the market launch of the new Hybrid Rav4 for sales cues about how to reach our largest truck market, Americans. We are also considering the price point for the future truck. The Mirai fuel cell vehicle currently has a very high price tag ("Toyota Mirai," n.d.). The evolution of more hydrogen vehicles will lower the cost of parts and production and make them all more accessible. Our current Prius technology is aging and begging for future innovation. The battery market is rapidly evolving so there are many options for how to power this truck ("Powering the Future," n.d.).
This will revolutionize shipping all around the world. Farmers will no longer have to worry about the environmental effects that getting their produce to market will have on their future. Families going into the great outdoors can be assured that they are depleting their children's access to beautiful parks. Construction workers can get to their job sites with less waste and keep more money in their pocket. With the growth of online shopping and the rise of corporate responsibility, we can expect commitment from major firms to purchase fleets of green vehicles.
We are pursuing this ambitious goal because of the possibility of a future without oil. With our strong commitment to kaizen we will start working to increase efficiency now, so that Toyota can be prepared for that future (Barabba, 2007). With our long history of building ever improving small trucks, we feel we are in the perfect position to put this vehicle on the market. Our commitment to our global vision includes developing the vehicles that will make society less carbon dependent ("Quality Durability Reliability," n.d.).
This will mean a shift in certain research and development dollars. We will be working with both the current hybrid and fuel cell development groups. There will be a competition between both groups to see which can produce a more efficient engine that will meet our power requirements. To meet our commitment to American-made trucks for the American market, we will move production of the chosen engine to our Texas plant. This will be a big shift for some of us. We have not worked with American engineers enough and this will provide excellent opportunities for growth and innovation. We have previously expanded production of vehicles to overseas plants with great success and we expect to have the same results with this new challenge (Mueller, 2004).
We fully expect that this new truck will meet all of Toyota’s Quality, Reliability and Durability standards. Thus, while the challenge will start with input from the alternative energy teams we will also need to set up the Tonenergi as a whole new truck.
In response to this change, I will expect A3’s from all research department heads within a month (Shook, 2009). The competition for engine design will have 6 months to make all calculations and provide the Tonenergi development department with production ready models in a year. We hope that this research will provide us with more than just the answer to get one truck to market. Hopefully this will spur a new research team which can start a marketplace revolution. By being the first to innovate, Toyota will secure its place in the future.
References
Barabba, V. P. (2007). The Toyota innovation model. Strategy & Leadership, 35(4).
Mueller, U. (2004). Toyota expands export strategy. Automotive News, 79(6112), 30. doi:219363019
Powering the future. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.toyota-global.com/innovation/environmental_technology/fuelcell_vehicle/
Quality Durability Reliability. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.toyota-global.com/innovation/quality/
Shook, J. (2009). Toyota's secret: The A3 report. MIT Sloan Management Review, 50(4). Retrieved from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/
Toyota Mirai. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/
No comments:
Post a Comment