xcel
06-15-2006, 01:04 PM
Automaker banks on famed production methods to build 7,000 houses a year for the Japanese market. (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060615/AUTO01/606150347/1148)
Yuri Kageyama - Associated Press - June 15, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Toyota_Homes.jpg
Katsumi Kasahara - Associated Press
KASUGAI, Japan - Cubicles that are bits of homes, tucked with stairways, built-in closets and pink bathtubs, roll off the assembly line at a bustling Toyota plant in central Japan. Kasugai Housing Works, a plant for prefabricated housing run by Toyota Motor Corp., prides itself on the same production methods that gave the Japanese automaker a worldwide reputation for quality and efficiency.
Housing makes up less than 1 percent of Toyota's $183 billion annual sales. But company officials say technology acquired from years of making cars is central to homebuilding Toyota style.
A "smart key," similar to the car key you don't need to take out of your pocket to unlock your Toyota, opens and closes the front door. A mechanism for reducing engine noise and tremors is installed under the floor to quiet upstairs shakes. Toyota - the world's second biggest automaker - has no plans to expand its housing business overseas.
Toyota homes are mass produced like Toyota cars. About 85 percent of the work on the metal-frame cubicles is finished at the plant. The prefabricated cubicles, made to order for the customer, are stacked like toy blocks with a huge crane and topped with a roof in just six hours.
The cubicles called units vary in size, with the bigger ones measuring 20 feet long. An average Japanese home requires 12 units. A buyer chooses from several designs, ranging from sleek modern to standard fare. Toyota, which made just 4,600 homes last year, is planning 5,000 homes this year, and is targeting 7,000 homes per year by 2010.
Toyota homes - which cost about $227,000 each, average for a middle-class Japanese home - are built to endure earthquakes common in Japan.
Yuri Kageyama - Associated Press - June 15, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Toyota_Homes.jpg
Katsumi Kasahara - Associated Press
KASUGAI, Japan - Cubicles that are bits of homes, tucked with stairways, built-in closets and pink bathtubs, roll off the assembly line at a bustling Toyota plant in central Japan. Kasugai Housing Works, a plant for prefabricated housing run by Toyota Motor Corp., prides itself on the same production methods that gave the Japanese automaker a worldwide reputation for quality and efficiency.
Housing makes up less than 1 percent of Toyota's $183 billion annual sales. But company officials say technology acquired from years of making cars is central to homebuilding Toyota style.
A "smart key," similar to the car key you don't need to take out of your pocket to unlock your Toyota, opens and closes the front door. A mechanism for reducing engine noise and tremors is installed under the floor to quiet upstairs shakes. Toyota - the world's second biggest automaker - has no plans to expand its housing business overseas.
Toyota homes are mass produced like Toyota cars. About 85 percent of the work on the metal-frame cubicles is finished at the plant. The prefabricated cubicles, made to order for the customer, are stacked like toy blocks with a huge crane and topped with a roof in just six hours.
The cubicles called units vary in size, with the bigger ones measuring 20 feet long. An average Japanese home requires 12 units. A buyer chooses from several designs, ranging from sleek modern to standard fare. Toyota, which made just 4,600 homes last year, is planning 5,000 homes this year, and is targeting 7,000 homes per year by 2010.
Toyota homes - which cost about $227,000 each, average for a middle-class Japanese home - are built to endure earthquakes common in Japan.