Toyota Salutes North American Quality

Tokyo―On the first day of its annual two-day meeting of North American parts suppliers exporting to Japan, Toyota Motor Corporation announced the winners of the "Toyota Award for Quality Performance." Approximately 330 participants representing 124 North American parts suppliers attended the meeting.

The Awards are given annually by Toyota to companies in North America supplying its operations in Japan who have achieved outstanding levels of quality performance.

Toyota has 140 U.S. companies supplying parts and materials for vehicle production in Japan. Five companies were selected for awards given in two categories of performance, "Superior" and "Excellent." The award winners were: The Timken Company, Johnson Matthey, Nippondenso Tennessee, Seeburn Division of Ventura Group, Inc., and AC Rochester.

In presenting the awards, Iwao Okijima, senior managing director of Toyota Motor Corporation, said, "We had a hard time selecting winners since the quality of the suppliers here are all at a very high level. Nonetheless, we did manage to select the winning suppliers and Toyota would like to take this opportunity to recognize them for their accomplishment."

Also at the meeting, Noritaka Shimizu, director of Toyota Motor Corporation, announced that in fiscal 1993, Toyota purchased $4.65 billion worth of U.S. parts and materials.

"The growth of our U.S. purchasing, from $1.1 billion just five years ago, is a testament to the cooperation and effort of not only Toyota, but to its more than 440 U.S. suppliers," Shimizu said.