Eiji Toyoda, who presided over Toyota Motor during its crucial development years between 1967 and 1982, has died of heart failure – at the age of 100 – at the Toyota Memorial Hospital in Toyota City, central Japan.
He was first cousin to the automaker’s founder Kiichiro Toyoda and was pivotal in the development of Toyota Motor into the global automotive powerhouse it is today.
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In his early years on the factory floor he helped pioneer Toyota’s universally adopted just in time (JIT) production system and encouraged the development of the ‘kaizen’ continuous improvement culture among the company’s employees.
