Another big reason behind Toyota's success is its mastery of lean manufacturing and continuous improve ment. Its plants can make as many as eight models at the same time, bringing huge increases in productivity and market responsiveness. The company also relent lessly innovates; a typical Toyota assembly line makes thousands of operational changes in a year. Employees see their purpose as threefold: making cars, making cars better, and teaching everyone how to make cars better. The company encourages problem solving, always look ing to improve the process by which it improves all other processes.
Toyota has integrated its assembly plants around the world into a single giant network that can custom ize cars for local markets and shift production quickly to meet surges in demand from markets worldwide. The company is thus able to fill market niches inexpensively as they emerge, without building whole new assembly operations. "If there's a market or market segment where they aren't present, they go there," said Tatsuo Yoshida, auto analyst at Deutsche Securities Ltd.
Over the years, Toyota automobiles have consistently ranked high in quality and reliability. In 2009 and 2010, however, the company recalled more than 8 million cars for potential perceived problems ranging from sticking accelerator pedals to the global market, from family sedans and sport utility vehicles to trucks and minivans. In 2013, the company earned more than 22 trillion yen (or $217 billion) and sold
8.87 million automobiles, edging past General Motors to become the world's largest carmaker.