Toyota's Kamigo Plant began operating with state-of-the-art facilities and weighty expectations. Today, what is the plant doing to ensure it will still be making engines a decade from now?
Engines aren’t going anywhere
Following Morizo’s remarks at Auto Salon in 2024, that May, President Koji Sato hosted the Multipathway Workshop with Subaru and Mazda. The event showcased new engines being developed by the three companies, harnessing their unique strengths. Then, at this year’s Auto Salon, Toyota unveiled a GR Yaris midship concept featuring a new 2.0-liter engine.
Even in this so-called age of electrification, Toyota has remained committed to making engines. General Manager Saito feels that the foundation for the Kamigo Plant’s current push into automation, digitalization, and greater diversity is its ceaseless dedication to kaizen.
Plant General Manager Saito
There was a period when even we believed that engines were on the way out.
“If we’re going to switch to BEVs (battery electric vehicles), we’ll need capital for BEV production.”
“We need to earn money while we can.”
“It’s up to our plants to generate capital for new businesses.”
That’s how we all felt. Our mindset has always been that, to make this possible, we needed to continually improve. I think that served us well. Even with BEVs on the rise, we are still ticking along.
At that point, if we had just stopped and said, “That’s it for engines, we’re done—stop spending money and making improvements,” I don’t think we would be here today.
If we’re thinking about the future, automation is essential. We have a vision of where we want to be, and we intend to keep working towards it.
We face personnel shortages stemming from Japan’s declining birthrate and an aging population, which is shifting away from manufacturing. To solve this problem, we need more than just worker-friendly environments—we must change the way our production lines operate. That’s why all of us now talk about making good use of digital solutions.
Bit by bit, we are discovering how best to transform our facilities through the use of digital technologies.
Assigned to Kamigo upon joining Toyota, General Manager Saito forged his career at the plant. He describes the evolution highlighted in this article as a way of “giving back,” and hopes “the plant will remain firmly profitable, even in 10 or 15 years.”
We closed out the interview by asking him if the end was in sight for engines.
“Engines aren’t going anywhere. We want to keep making engines that are more efficient and can contribute to decarbonization. I believe there is still much that can be achieved through development.”
