Section 3. Rapid Growth of the Japanese Market and Development of the Lexus

Item 4. Enhancing Efficiency and Organizational Structure of New-car Development

Strengthening design organizational structure

Meanwhile, to incorporate regional characteristics and world trends into the new models to be developed, TMC promoted measures to strengthen its design centers both inside and outside Japan. First, in 1989, TMC established the Toyota Europe Office of Creation (Toyota EPOC) in a suburb of Brussels, Belgium as the design center for Europe, which began collecting cutting-edge information and developing advanced designs. In Japan, TMC opened the Tokyo Design Center in Minato-ku, Tokyo in 1990. The center was equipped with a scale-model creation facility and began operating with a staff of some 30 people.

In the United States in 1991, TMC significantly enhanced the Calty Design Research, Inc. (Calty) facility, its first overseas design center, established in New Port Beach, California in 1973. This addition enabled TMC to establish an organization that could proceed with development work from a global viewpoint at its four design centers-TMC's Design Division, Tokyo Design Center, Calty, and EPOC. The results produced by the overseas design centers were phenomenal, with many popular models-such as the Vitz at EPOC-developed.

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