Toyota to consolidate North American operations in Texas

Toyota today will create a new corporate North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, bringing together its manufacturing, sales and marketing, corporate and financial services operations at a single campus set to begin construction this fall. Scheduled to start this summer and be complete by 2017, this wide-ranging consolidation will impact about 4,000 employees. Roughly half will be from Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. (TMS) in Torrance, California, and an additional 1,000 from the Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA) in Erlanger, Kentucky — along with certain employees of Toyota Motor North America (TMA) in New York City. An additional 1,000 in the Torrance-based Toyota Financial Services (TFS) group are slated to move sometime in 2017. The automaker also confirmed that it will expand the scale and scope of its Toyota Technical Center near Ann Arbor, Michigan, to handle procurement transferred from Erlanger as well as to accommodate future growth in product development.

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“With our major North American business affiliates and leaders together in one location for the first time, we will be better equipped to speed decision making, share best practices, and leverage the combined strength of our employees,” stated Jim Lentz, who became Toyota’s first chief executive officer for the North America Region in 2013.

Lentz noted that the move to Plano – which is about 30 miles north of Dallas — “is the most significant change we’ve made to our North American operations in the past 50 years.” He also indicated that none of the firm’s 10 U.S. manufacturing facilities will be impacted by the move. A number of key support operations, including Calty Design studio, Toyota InfoTechnology Center, Toyota Racing Development and various Toyota/Lexus regional field offices and distribution centers do not figure in the relocation program at this time.

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