On January 29, 1981, the “Toyota Invasion” documentary produced by CBS was broadcast in the United States. On the one hand, Toyota cars continued to roll off the assembly line, and on the other hand, it was the depression and decline of “Car City” Detroit. At this time, the annual output of Japanese cars reached 11 million last year, surpassing the United States to become the world’s number one. Corresponding to this is the plummeting operating performance of the three major U.S. auto companies. Chrysler lost as much as $1.7 billion in 1980. Ford lost $1.5 billion in 1980, both of which were the highest losses in history. GM lost $763 million, its first loss since the Great Depression. Facing the menacing Toyota, Chrysler and Ford jointly filed an anti-dumping lawsuit against Japan to the International Trade Commission, accusing Toyota of dumping cars into the US market. The United Auto Workers union launched an action to smash Japanese cars, and angry American workers began to smash Toyota cars on a large scale.
At the same time, the U.S. government took action to limit the number of Japanese car exports. In 1981, it was 1.68 million vehicles, and in 1982 it was limited to 1.93 million vehicles. The Japanese government can only agree to the conditions of the United States. In order to avoid a possible trade war between the United States and Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone even took a huge political risk to make a speech on Japanese national television, begging every Japanese to buy $100 of American goods. The three major U.S. automobile companies never imagined that Toyota, a “student” who was still learning American-style production decades ago, has now transformed into a “teacher” for them.
One
“Student” Toyota
In 1933, when Toyota was born, it was the era when the Ford production model was popular. In 1934, Toyota sent Guan Longjun, Minister of Technology and Operations, to visit the United States. In four and a half months, he visited a total of 130 factories, 7 research institutes and 5 universities.In 1938, the first mass production plant of Toyota under the design and guidance of Ying Longjun was completed. In terms of layout, the factory completely followed the Ford company. It even set up a visiting passage in the workshop and provided a company profile like the Ford factory. , adopted the policy of open production. After World War II, Toyota once again set off a wave of learning from Ford. In order to learn Ford’s production technology, Toyota’s executive director Eiji Toyoda came to the Ford factory as an intern in 1950. He not only attended Ford’s management lectures, but also came to the production site to communicate directly with ordinary Ford production workers, asking questions There are some production issues. This kind of way for corporate managers to communicate with employees at the grassroots level is extremely rare in Ford. Naturally, these grassroots workshop workers are willing to chat with Eiji Toyoda, and some even demonstrate their work to him. This trip to the United States brought great shock to Eiji Toyoda. He realized, “Ford’s production method is specially designed for the production site in the United States, and it will not be fully effective if it is completely copied to Japan. We must adopt suitable methods. Only by our own methods can we catch up with the United States.” The words of an American engineer gave Toyota Eiji new inspiration, “Ford used to be a township factory. When it was a township factory, Ford was able to produce good cars.” Toyota Eiji understood that he had already Found a way to outdo Ford. “There is nothing wrong with Toyota being a township enterprise. We must continue to produce cars with the spirit of work clothes.” Instead of copying Ford’s mass production method, Toyota has optimized the entire production line to reduce the cost of car production as much as possible. cost. To this end, Taiichi Ono, the factory director of Toyota Corporation, formulated the Toyota Production System on the basis of the Ford model. Unlike Ford’s production model, which requires employees to be responsible for only one job, Ohno Taiichi requires employees to be “one-specialized and multi-skilled”, that is, one person can operate five or six machines. In addition, he also invented two management tools, “Kanban” and “Andon”, so that Toyota’s leaders can better manage on-site. Further improve work efficiency and reduce costs. In 1962, Toyota’s car production exceeded 1 million. At this time, Toyota was no longer satisfied with being a “student” of Ford. It decided to enter the US market and confront its “teachers”.
Two
from student to teacher
Toyota quickly got a chance. In the 1970s, with the help of the oil crisis, Japanese cars that were fuel-efficient, durable, and cheap were immediately welcomed by Americans. Japanese cars led by Toyota quickly occupied the American market. At the same time, the proud production model of American car companies has also been challenged. More and more car companies have begun to study and learn the Toyota model, becoming Toyota’s “students”. The former students have now become teachers. This strong sense of gap has caused American society to collectively boycott Toyota. Under such circumstances, in 1982, Toyota Motor Industry Corporation and Toyota Motor Sales Corporation were re-merged into Toyota Motor Corporation. Eiji Toyoda served as the chairman. Under the background of boycotting Japanese products, try to keep Toyota’s sales as much as possible. Shoichiro Toyoda, who was ordered in danger, started a drastic reform. In 1983, Toyota and GM signed a joint venture agreement to establish the New United Automobile Manufacturing Company, which was also the first joint venture automobile company in the United States. Toyota not only hired the union members who took the lead in destroying Toyota cars, but also brought experienced American workers from the factory back to Japan for “advanced studies”, allowing them to learn Toyota’s management experience and train them to become product line managers. In 1988, the Kentucky plant wholly owned by Toyota was officially put into production. Today, it is still Toyota’s largest plant in North America. So far, Toyota has successfully entered the North American market. Even though Toyota at that time had become the number one in the world, it still couldn’t get rid of the humbleness in its bones when facing the former teacher. Fujio Cho, the former honorary chairman of Toyota, once served as the corporate president of the Toyota factory in Kentucky. In order to build a good relationship with the American workers in the factory, he insisted on inviting local employees to his home every Saturday during his 8 years in office. Not only that, Fujio Cho also has no airs in communicating with the managers of the American factory. A production line at Toyota stopped for 15 hours because of a problem with a certain part. The next day, Zhang Fujio called the person in charge, Paul Brigi, to the office. Zhang Fujio not only did not fire him, but also bowed to thank him: “Mr. Paul, our factory has just been established and is in a critical period. During the 15 hours Thank you for your hard work. Thanks to you, production can resume operation, thank you very much.” It is this humble and low-key way of handling that helped Toyota survive the crisis. By 1990, Toyota’s sales in the United States exceeded 1.1 million, successfully in The US market expanded. Although it has changed from a “student” to a “teacher”, Toyota still understands the powerful energy contained in the US market. In order to win the favor of “students”, Toyota, which has become a “teacher”, still actively integrates into the economic cycle dominated by the United States with a very low profile, and seeks greater development of the enterprise with an art of compromise.
final words
Looking back at the post-war relationship between Japanese industry and the US economy, it can be clearly divided into two stages: the succession and imitation from 1956 to 1973; the competition and partial surpassing from 1974 to 1990. The Japanese economy initially took over the low-end manufacturing capacity of the United States through a labor-intensive industrial structure, and gradually cultivated advantageous enterprises with global competitiveness in the process of continuous industrial upgrading. After absorbing the technology wave led by the United States and the nutrition of globalization, Japanese companies have finally become existences that shake the foundation of the American economy. Snoring is not allowed on the side of the couch. When the United States’ international influence is at its peak, putting pressure on Japanese industries has become an inevitable trend of the times. This is a proposition of the times that Shoichiro Toyoda’s generation of Japanese entrepreneurs had to face up to in the fierce atmosphere of “Japan can say no” in the Showa era. Shoichiro Toyoda won the generous approval of the Americans through a gesture of teaching them all, and finally made Toyota a solid position on the throne of the world’s number one car company. Unlike Japan, which is already politically dependent on the United States, the situation facing Chinese industries today is more complicated. On the one hand, China’s industrial upgrading is still on the way, and some industrial chains still have serious bottlenecks; on the other hand, China has already become extremely influential in the world in some industries, and it is an excellent target for the United States to shirk domestic pressure . If Shoichiro Toyoda is facing a single-plank bridge of pressure and development, what Chinese companies are facing today is almost a steel wire rope. In the past two years, the documentary about Fuyao Glass’s establishment of a factory in the United States has been a hit. Although the pressure is not from the official, the advances and retreats of the glass king Cao Dewang are at a loss. It is still discussed in front of the public. The glass industry is not an advanced industry related to key technologies. At the moment when the new energy revolution is in full swing, Cao Dewang’s fellow Fujianese, Zeng Yuqun, is facing the severe situation of being burned by a volcano. In 2018, Ningde Times officially surpassed Panasonic to become the power battery company with the largest shipments in the world. This year, Ningde Times also began to seek a global layout and successfully invested and built a factory in Germany. Ben also intends to deploy in the United States, but this year’s fierce trade friction between China and the United States has put the Ningde era’s plan to build a factory in the United States on hold. While the industrial trend of new energy vehicles is becoming more and more clear, the United States has also adopted a series of industrial protection policies. This year, the U.S. government promulgated the “Inflation Reduction Act”, stipulating that more than 50% of the battery components and materials used in new energy vehicles must be produced in North America in order to receive a $3,750 tax subsidy. At the same time, the proportion of localization of raw materials will increase year by year, and must reach 100% by 2029. This once blocked the way to build factories in the United States in the Ningde era, but the policy is dead, and entrepreneurs are alive. On February 14, Ford Motor announced that it would invest $3.5 billion to build a lithium battery plant in Michigan, and Ningde Times provided technical support. The two companies are rumored to adopt a new ownership structure, with Ford owning 100 percent of the factory, while CATL will operate the factory and own the technology to make the batteries. The development of new energy in the U.S. auto industry requires technology from China. In the context of China-U.S. confrontation, the Chinese and U.S. industries try to use a more flexible innovative cooperation to bypass the pressure from the U.S. industrial policy. The competition in the industrial field has always been the overlapping update of scale and technology. The technology that loses its scale is ingenious, and the scale that loses its technology is stupid. The competitive advantage China has accumulated in the field of new energy vehicles is precisely because of the introduction of Tesla’s advanced technology and the use of China’s vast and deep market to cultivate a complete industrial chain, which is unique between technology and market. It is not easy to build a competitive advantage in efficiency. Such advantages are not taken for granted. Ningde Times, as the leader of the global lithium battery industry, must further integrate with the global market when the industry is in full swing. If you only hold on to the domestic market at this time, LG New Energy and Panasonic are ready to overtake at any time. According to data released by SNE Research, an energy market research organization, from January to November 2022, CATL, BYD, LG New Energy, and Panasonic accounted for 37.1%, 13.6%, 12.3%, and 7.7% of global power battery installations, respectively.The leading edge of Chinese lithium battery companies is far from reaching the point where the dust is overwhelming, and the US market is very important to all players. But it is not easy to win the US market. On the one hand, it is necessary to counter-subsidize American industries to appease the hot-headed ideology of the United States; on the other hand, it is necessary to build the technological advantages accumulated by Chinese industries through untold hardships into competition barriers. Domestically, there are also more expectations and requirements for CATL, which is now a leading technology company in the world. In the fierce global competition, it is bound to arouse doubts that Chinese enterprises want to export technology to the outside world. The cooperation between Ford and Ningde Times has attracted intense attention as soon as it was announced. On February 17, after the news that the relevant cooperation may be stranded, Ningde Times’ stock price plummeted like mercury. It is undoubtedly a difficult road to pay attention to the competition and cooperation of the market economy, but also to be scruples about the Sino-US confrontation environment, and to provide explanations for the domestic pressure on both sides. Toyota’s U.S. plant was built in the 1980s when globalization was in full swing, but what we faced was a more complex macro environment. The art of balance in the middle is a proposition entrusted to the Chinese generation of entrepreneurs by the times.
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