The ENTIRE History of Toyota in 20 Minutes

Toyota history and automotive history in one story: how a poor carpenter's son who built a loom that stopped itself created the world's biggest car company, built on the Toyota Production System, lean manufacturing, and the customer who pulls. This history of Toyota covers Sakichi Toyoda, Kiichiro Toyoda, Taiichi Ohno, just in time manufacturing, the Corolla, NUMMI, the Prius, the Toyota recall crisis, Akio Toyoda, and Toyota's hybrid bet. --- 📖 The book behind this video: https://link.amazon/B03xVl6o8 🏭 Taiichi Ohno's own account: https://link.amazon/B0aF7QtVr 📚 Every book from this video: https://builtonyou.github.io/ebook/to... 🎧 Listen free on Audible: https://link.amazon/A07E0fTm5 (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) --- Toyota and Lexus sell around 10 million vehicles a year, roughly one new car every 3 seconds, and the Corolla alone has sold more than 50 million cars. In 2025 Toyota was the world's biggest carmaker for the sixth year in a row, while rivals like Plymouth, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Saturn disappeared. This documentary follows the complete history of Toyota: Sakichi Toyoda and the hand loom, the Type G automatic loom and jidoka, the patent sold to Platt Brothers of England, Kiichiro Toyoda and the Chevrolet engine, the Model AA, why Toyoda became Toyota, the war years, the 1950 bankruptcy crisis and strike, the Korean War truck orders, Eiji Toyoda at Ford's River Rouge plant, Taiichi Ohno and the American supermarket, kanban, the andon cord, the five whys, the Toyota Production System and lean manufacturing, Henry Ford's influence, the Toyopet Crown flop, the Corolla, the 1973 oil crisis, Toyota City, NUMMI with General Motors, Saturn, the Tesla factory in Fremont, Lexus and the champagne glass ad, the Prius, passing GM in 2008, Akio Toyoda, the unintended acceleration recall and congressional testimony, the 2011 tsunami and supply chains, the 2021 chip shortage, the hydrogen Mirai, Morizo, the 2024 certification scandal, Woven City, Toyota Industries and forklifts, CEO Kenta Kon, US tariffs, and the hybrid versus electric car bet. CHAPTERS 0:00 Toyota History: An Efficiency System That Makes Cars 3:03 Sakichi Toyoda and the Loom That Stopped Itself 4:19 The Patent That Paid for a Car Company 4:58 Kiichiro Toyoda and the First Toyota Cars 5:54 Why Toyoda Became Toyota 6:55 The 1950 Crisis: Strike, Resignation and Rescue 7:37 Eiji Toyoda at Ford and Taiichi Ohno 8:37 The Supermarket Idea: Kanban, Andon and the Five Whys 10:05 The Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing 10:58 The Toyopet Crown Flop and the Corolla 12:20 NUMMI: Fixing GM's Worst Factory 13:35 Lexus, Prius and Passing General Motors 14:11 The Toyota Recall Crisis and Akio Toyoda 14:58 The 2011 Tsunami and the Chip Shortage 15:45 Hydrogen, Morizo and Woven City 16:37 Toyota in 2026: Tariffs, Kenta Kon and the Hybrid Bet 17:59 Why It Matters: Lean Thinking Everywhere 19:15 Back to the Loom Bankruptcy could not finish it. A failed first car could not stop it. A recall crisis could not break it. And in 2026, Toyota's oldest idea, stop the line when something goes wrong, is being tested by tariffs, trade wars, and the race to electric cars. This Toyota documentary is built on company records, the writings of Taiichi Ohno, government and court records, academic research, and verified reporting. Every Built On You episode tells the full story of a company, from founder to today, and reveals the one thing it was really built on. SOURCES Ohno, T. (1988), Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production, Productivity Press Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T. and Roos, D. (1990), The Machine That Changed the World, Rawson Associates Liker, J. K. (2004), The Toyota Way, McGraw-Hill Toyoda, E. (1987), Toyota: Fifty Years in Motion, Kodansha International Toyota Motor Corporation, 75 Years of Toyota (company history) Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, Nagoya This American Life (2010), "NUMMI," Episode 403 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA Engineering and Safety Center (2011), Technical Assessment of Toyota Electronic Throttle Control Systems U.S. Department of Justice (2014), Toyota to Pay $1.2 Billion for Misleading Consumers about Safety Issues U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (2010), Hearing on Toyota Gas Pedals Toyota Motor Corporation (2026), FY2026 Financial Results Toyota Motor Corporation (2026), FY2027 First Quarter Financial Summary #ToyotaHistory #Toyota #HistoryOfToyota #ToyotaProductionSystem #LeanManufacturing #AutomotiveHistory #CarHistory #JustInTime #AkioToyoda #BusinessDocumentary #HistoryDocumentary #CompanyHistory #BusinessHistory #BuiltOnYou