Editing NUMMI (section)

===Transforming Fremont Assembly into NUMMI===
At about the same time, GM was struggling to profitably build high-quality and fuel-efficient small cars that consumers demanded after the [[1970s energy crisis|energy crisis of the 1970s]]. Consumers started turning to foreign automakers for these vehicles, prompting the U.S. Congress to consider import restrictions to protect the domestic auto industry.<ref name="atc2010" /><ref name="Langfitt 2015" /> That led GM and Toyota to team up and create New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), a [[joint venture]] to manufacture vehicles to be sold under both brands.<ref name="timeline" />

GM saw the joint venture as a way to get access to quality small cars<ref name="Langfitt 2015" /> and an opportunity to learn about the [[Toyota Production System]] and [[The Toyota Way]], a series of [[lean manufacturing]] and management philosophies that had made the company a leader in the automotive manufacturing and production industry.<ref>Brian Bremner, B. and C. Dawson (November 17, 2003). [https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2003-11-16/can-anything-stop-toyota "Can Anything Stop Toyota?: An inside look at how it's reinventing the auto industry"]. ''Business Week.''</ref> For Toyota, the factory gave the company its first manufacturing base in North America allowing it to avoid tariffs on imported vehicles<ref>{{cite web|date=2012|title=Global Website - 75 Years of Toyota - Section 3. Local Production Starts in North America - Item 2. Joint Venture with GM|url=http://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/75years/text/leaping_forward_as_a_global_corporation/chapter1/section3/item2.html |url-status=live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160330153224/http://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/75years/text/leaping_forward_as_a_global_corporation/chapter1/section3/item2.html |archive-date=March 30, 2016|access-date=October 10, 2016|publisher=Toyota|df=mdy}}</ref> and saw GM as a partner that could show them how to navigate the American labor environment, particularly relations with the [[United Auto Workers]] union.<ref name="Adler 1992">{{Cite report |url=https://msbfile03.usc.edu/digitalmeasures/padler/intellcont/NUMMI%28ROB%29-1.pdf |title=The 'Learning Bureaucracy': New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. |last=Adler |first=Paul S. |date=April 1992 |publisher=School of Business Administration, [[University of Southern California]] |access-date=2021-06-30}}</ref>{{rp|4,10}}<ref name="Adler 1995">{{Cite web |last=Adler |first=Paul S. |date=January 1995 |title=Democratic Taylorism: The Toyota Production System at NUMMI |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245862516 |access-date=October 10, 2016 |website=ResearchGate}}</ref><ref name="Langfitt 2015" />

The companies made the unusual choice to remake the troubled Fremont Assembly into the new NUMMI plant. The leadership of the UAW union insisted on re-hiring the same union leadership that had overseen GM's worst workforce. GM was against it, but Toyota agreed, believing that their system could turn things around. However, Toyota insisted that the plant would need to operate differently and old seniority rules would not apply. The workers hated the proposed changes, but desperately needed jobs. Ultimately, over 85% of NUMMI's initial workforce were the workers laid off at Fremont Assembly in 1982.<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|11–12}} GM would also assign 16 managers to the plant and Toyota sent 30 managers and production coordinators from Japan, including the CEO, [[Tatsuro Toyoda]], part of the company's founding family.<ref name="Adler 1993">{{Cite journal |last=Adler |first=Paul S. |date=January 1993 |title=Time-and-Motion Regained |url=https://hbr.org/1993/01/time-and-motion-regained |access-date=July 9, 2017 |journal=[[Harvard Business Review]] |location=US}}</ref>

Ahead of the reopening of the plant, Toyota sent many of the workers to [[Takaoka plant|Toyota's Takaoka plant in Japan]]<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|9}} to learn the [[Toyota Production System]] and actually work for a few days on the assembly line.<ref name="atc2010" /><ref name="Langfitt 2015" /> Workers who made the transition identified the emphasis on quality and teamwork by Toyota management as what motivated a change in work ethic.<ref name="atc2010" /><ref name="Langfitt 2015" /> Among the cultural changes were the same uniform, parking and cafeterias for all levels of employment in order to promote a team concept, and a no-[[layoff]] policy.<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|14,16,33}} [[Autonomation|Built-in process quality]] and employee suggestion programs for [[continual improvement process|continual improvement]]<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|33}} were other changes.<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|18}} [[Consensus decision-making]] reached management level, in contrast with the old [[departmentalization]].<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|20}}

By December 1984 (two years after the closure of Fremont Assembly), NUMMI's first car, a yellow [[Chevrolet Nova#Fifth generation (1985–1988)|Chevrolet Nova]], rolled off the assembly line. The plant started producing the Toyota Corolla in September 1986.<ref name="timeline" />  Almost right away, the NUMMI factory was producing cars at the same speed as the Japanese factories and Corollas produced at NUMMI were judged to be equal in quality to those produced in Japan with a similar number of defects per 100 vehicles.<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|23}}<ref name="atc2010" /><ref name="Langfitt 2015" />

In 1990, for the 1991 model year, Toyota started building the [[Toyota Hilux]] (also known as the Toyota Pickup) at NUMMI, allowing the company to completely avoid the [[chicken tax]], a 25 percent [[tariff]] on [[light truck]]s imposed in 1964. Previously, the company had avoided a large portion of the tariff by importing the truck as an incomplete [[chassis cab]] (which included the entire truck, less the truck bed) which only faced a 4% tariff.<ref name="ending chicken2">{{cite web|last=Ikenson|first=Daniel |date=June 18, 2003|title=Ending the 'Chicken War': The Case for Abolishing the 25 Percent Truck Tariff|url=http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6806 |url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110921113753/http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6806 |archive-date=September 21, 2011|access-date=November 29, 2011|website=The Cato Institute}}</ref> Once in the United States, [[Toyota Auto Body California]] (TABC) would produce the truck beds and attach them to the trucks. TABC was the first manufacturing investment in the U.S. for Toyota.<ref>{{Cite press release|title=Toyota's TABC Plant Celebrates 40 Years of Manufacturing in California|date=August 21, 2012|url=https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-tabc-plant-celebrates-40-years-manufacturing-california/ |access-date=2021-06-02|website=[[Toyota Motor North America]]}}</ref> This tariff loophole was closed in 1980.

NUMMI did face some financial challenges, with cars costing more to build than at other GM plants and only operating at 58.6% capacity by 1988.<ref name="sim2006">{{cite web|last=Simmers|first=Tim |date=March 5, 2006|title=NUMMI plant a model for ailing car industry|url=http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2006/03/05/nummi-plant-a-model-for-ailing-car-industry/ |access-date=November 5, 2017|publisher=[[Contra Costa Times]]|quote=5,500 employees. The plant makes 960 cars a day and 650 trucks. A finished car comes off the assembly line every 55 seconds, and a truck rolls off every 81 seconds. It takes 6½ hours to make a car at NUMMI. It costs 30 percent to 40 percent more to make cars here}}</ref> The plant had not reached [[Break-even (economics)|break-even]] by 1991.<ref name="Adler 1992" />{{rp|14}}

In January 1995, NUMMI began producing the [[Toyota Tacoma]], a pickup truck designed exclusively for the North American market.<ref name="timeline" />

Up to May 2010, NUMMI built an average of 6,000 vehicles a week, or nearly eight million cars and trucks since opening in 1984.<ref name="atc2010" /><ref name="Langfitt 2015" /> In 1997, NUMMI produced 357,809 cars and trucks.<ref>{{cite web|title=GM Nummi Plant|url=http://autointell.com/nao_companies/general_motors/gm-manufacturing/gm-nummi/gmnummi.htm |url-status=live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160314051152/http://autointell.com/nao_companies/general_motors/gm-manufacturing/gm-nummi/gmnummi.htm |archive-date=March 14, 2016|access-date=October 9, 2016|df=mdy}}</ref> Production reached its annual peak of 428,633 units in 2006.<ref name="peakprod">{{cite web |last=Schweinsberg |first=Christine |date=August 28, 2009 |title=Toyota's Decision to Abandon NUMMI Closes Book on 25-Year Experiment |url=http://wardsauto.com/news-analysis/toyota-s-decision-abandon-nummi-closes-book-25-year-experiment |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405231910/http://wardsauto.com/news-analysis/toyota-s-decision-abandon-nummi-closes-book-25-year-experiment |archive-date=April 5, 2016 |access-date=October 10, 2016 |work=[[Ward's]] |df=mdy}}</ref>