TOYOTA ESTABLISHES TWO NEW PRODUCTION ENGINEERING COMPANIES

Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION announced today that it has established two new production engineering companies to consolidate its position in factory automation and prepare for expansion in that field. The companies are Mechatronics Technical Associates, Inc. (MTA), and Body Production Engineering Associates, Inc. (BPA). Both companies are slated to begin operations in October with Toyota as their initial customer.

Based in Nagoya, near Toyota's headquarters, MTA will be responsible for the R&D, design, installation and maintenance of machine tools, robots, conveyance systems, and automatic controllers, as well as design of factory-automation systems. MTA eventually hopes to move into other factory-automation markets outside the automobile industry.

The second company, BPA, is located in Fukuoka City, where it can support Toyota's new assembly plant currently under construction nearby. BPA will work in plant construction and design of factory-automation systems, initially concentrating on improving the design of press dies and body-process engineering. The new company will eventually do engineering of robots, automatic controllers, and parts related to stamping, welding, painting, and assembly.

Both companies will also develop and market related software and handle technician training.

The new companies are wholly owned by Toyota, with MTA capitalized at ¥250 million and BPA at ¥400 million. Each company will start out with approximately 20 employees, with plans to expand to about 100 over the next five years. Sales at both companies are expected to reach ¥300 million the first year, and ¥2 billion annually by 1996.