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Looms
Toyota began as a company making automatic weaving looms.
5 min readLast updated
The short answer
Yes. Toyota grew out of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, founded in 1926 by inventor Sakichi Toyoda. His son Kiichiro started an automobile department inside the loom company in 1933.
Why it's true
Sakichi Toyoda was a Japanese inventor who spent decades improving looms, the machines that weave thread into cloth. His Type G automatic loom, completed in 1924, could change shuttles without stopping and would halt automatically if a thread broke. That meant one worker could watch many machines at once, a big gain in productivity.
In 1926 he founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works to make and sell the loom. A few years later, the British machinery firm Platt Brothers bought rights to the design, a sign of how advanced it was. Sakichi's son Kiichiro Toyoda was fascinated by cars, and in 1933 he set up an automobile division within the loom company.
That division was spun off in 1937 as the Toyota Motor Company, while the loom business carried on beside it.
By the numbers
1924
Type G automatic loom completed
1926
Toyoda Automatic Loom Works founded
1933
Automobile division created
1937
Toyota Motor Company established
The backstory
The car company used the name Toyota rather than Toyoda. Company histories say the change was made partly because Toyota, written in Japanese katakana, takes eight brush strokes, a number associated with good fortune, and partly because it sounded clearer and separated the business from the family name.
The loom also left a lasting idea. A machine that stops itself when something goes wrong, rather than producing faulty cloth, became the root of a principle Toyota calls jidoka, often translated as automation with a human touch. Together with just in time production, it became a pillar of the Toyota Production System that factories around the world later studied and copied.
Worth remembering
- Sakichi Toyoda's automatic loom launched the family business.
- His son Kiichiro started an automobile division in 1933.
- The loom company survives today as Toyota Industries.
In context
Industrial history is full of companies that moved from one machine to another. Weaving was one of the first industries to mechanise, so loom makers built skills in precision parts, casting and factory organisation. Those same skills transfer well to engines and cars, which helps explain why a loom company could become one of the largest automakers in the world.
The original loom is still on display at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya, housed in the company's old red brick textile factory. Visitors can see weaving machines and car assembly side by side, which makes the link between the two industries easy to understand.
Toyota Industries remains a major company in its own right and is a significant shareholder in the wider Toyota group, a reminder that the loom maker was never simply left behind.
A closer look
Selling the loom to Britain
In 1929 Platt Brothers of Oldham, England, one of the world's leading textile machinery makers, acquired rights to the Toyoda automatic loom. It was striking for a British firm, from the birthplace of the industrial revolution, to license a Japanese design.
Toyota's histories say money from that deal helped fund Kiichiro's research into automobiles, linking the loom directly to the first Toyota cars.
From cloth to cars
Kiichiro studied engines by taking apart foreign cars and learned from visits abroad. The company's first passenger car, the Model AA, appeared in 1936, before Toyota Motor Company was formally set up.
The automobile business struggled at first and faced serious financial trouble after the war. Its later success owed much to the production methods that echoed the self stopping loom.
Lessons from a broken thread
A loom that keeps running after a thread breaks wastes material and makes faulty cloth. Toyoda's design stopped instead, so a worker could fix the problem at once.
Toyota later applied the same thinking to car factories, allowing any worker to halt the line when they spotted a defect.
Related facts
Looms shaped technology in more than one way punched cards ran looms before computers.
Another giant that changed industries entirely Nokia began as a paper mill.
Asian conglomerates with humble starts Samsung began selling dried fish.
Japanese companies often have long, surprising histories Nintendo's playing card roots.
Key terms
- Loom
- A machine that weaves threads together to make cloth.
- Shuttle
- The part of a loom that carries the crosswise thread back and forth.
- Jidoka
- A Toyota principle of stopping production automatically when a defect appears.
Myth vs reality
Myth
Toyota was founded from the start as a car company.
Reality
It grew out of a loom maker, and that loom maker still operates as Toyota Industries.
People also ask
Who founded Toyota?
Kiichiro Toyoda founded the car business, starting it as a division of his father Sakichi Toyoda's loom company. Toyota Motor Company became a separate company in 1937.
What was special about the Toyoda automatic loom?
The Type G loom could replace shuttles without stopping and would stop itself when a thread broke. That allowed one worker to supervise many looms and reduced defects.
Why is it Toyota and not Toyoda?
Company accounts say Toyota was chosen for its clearer sound and because its katakana spelling takes eight strokes, a lucky number in Japan. It also separated the brand from the family name.
Does Toyota still make looms?
Yes. Toyota Industries, the descendant of the original loom company, still makes textile machinery along with forklifts, engines and other products.
What is jidoka?
Jidoka is a Toyota production principle meaning machines and workers stop the line when a problem appears. It traces back to Sakichi Toyoda's loom that stopped when a thread broke.
