Toyota has broken ground on the expansion of the Toyota Technical Center (TTC) in York Township, Michigan, USA.
“The expansion of the campus is a key element of Toyota’s ongoing unification of our North American operations, which include a new headquarters in Plano, Texas,” said Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“Investments here in Michigan will intensify Toyota’s engineering, product development and procurement capabilities. The impact of this will be felt by our customers through improved quality, adoption of new technologies and greater value of the vehicles we produce.”
Toyota is investing US$126 million in the project, which includes construction of two new buildings in York Township – a prototype facility for vehicle development and a supplier center.
The supplier center will allow Toyota to forge even stronger alliances with its supplier partners, the company says, and will enable day-to-day collaboration between the purchasing group, engineering design team and supplier partners.
The TTC expansion also enlarges Toyota’s powertrain development facility on its Ann Arbor Township campus. This element of the project will better position Toyota to develop engines and automatic transmissions for vehicles designed and manufactured in North America.
As part of the expansion, Toyota is relocating more than 300 team members to Michigan. The moves include direct procurement and supplier engineering development positions currently based in Erlanger, Kentucky, and vehicle development and powertrain functions that are presently in California. The OEM claims these moves further its commitment to drive more local decision-making and ultimately a faster, more precise response to the needs of the marketplace.
Toyota team members moving to Michigan joined Lentz, Toyota Motor North America executive vice president and chief administrative officer Osamu ‘Simon’ Nagata, and TTC president Seiya Nakao at the celebration. During the event, the soon-to-be Michigan residents stood at the construction site in the outline of where their future office building will sit. Tundra chief engineer Mike Sweers piloted the plow that moved the earth for the official start of construction.
All construction will be completed in late 2016.
June 24, 2015