World's Best-Selling Car Gets More Competitive

Governor Phil Bryant announced today that Toyota Motor Corporation would be making a $170 million investment in the Blue Springs, Mississippi, manufacturing plant which is responsible for building the Toyota Corolla in North, Central, and South America. The announcement was made at a ground breaking ceremony held at the Mississippi plant where the Mayor of Blue Springs and a number of other state and local government officials were present.

Governor Bryant talked about the great relationship with Toyota and the state of Mississippi saying, Toyota is the premier name in the automobile industry ... I'm very grateful today, I'm grateful to know the 1,500 team members will have more team members here; nearly 2,000 Mississippians will be working here in this remarkable Toyota plant in the very near future.

Also speaking at the ceremony was Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Mississippi President Sean Suggs. Suggs was recently promoted from his roles as vice president of manufacturing and administration there at the Blue Springs plant. He discussed how this major investment in the Blue Springs plant, by Toyota, was going to allow the plant to look to the future, but also keep up with customer demand for the bestselling car in the world. How do we get our team members to think more innovative to think outside the box as we transition to become a world mobility company and not just a car company? ... The Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) allows us to completely change the way we design vehicles, how we engineer, and how we produce vehicles, but never forgetting the commitment to the customer. Exceptional quality and the highest safety standards for our customers.

He praised the vendor partners and the supply base that helped the plant produce the 1 millionth Corolla. You can't get to a million vehicles without their help. ... You gotta have that teamwork and commitment from the community and our great team members. In addition to announcing the investment and redesign of the assembly plant, Suggs also revealed plans for a new 15,000-square-foot interactive training and visitor center that will be built in the next 12-18 months.

One of the goals for the visitor center will be to spotlight the Corolla's rise to the best-selling car in the world. Visitors will get a chance to see history of the Blue Spring plant from the beginning as well as the one millionth Corolla that was built at the plant. Currently, the Blue Springs plant is the only plant in North America without a visitors center.

The other goal for the visitor center is to introduce local students as well as individuals to what types of opportunities there are available in the automotive industry from engineering to robotics to design. The hope is that people who are interested in the automotive industry will realize they don't have to move away from family to Detroit because there are great career opportunities located right there in Mississippi.

Suggs believes very much in the Toyota philosophy of giving back to the community, as he currently, serves on the Mississippi State Board of Education, Mississippi Economic Council's executive committee, and as a board member for the Mississippi Manufacturers Association. So the announcement of the new training center on site at Blue Springs will allow all his Toyota team members the ability to stay current in the fast-changing car industry.

Toyota has shown a commitment the past 60 years of not only building plants here in the U.S., but also building up its team members and communities by investing nearly $22 billion. In 2017, Toyota announced a commitment to invest another $10 billion in its U.S. manufacturing plants over the next five years.

When you talk about the type of impact the Toyota Corporation has on American employment market, consider a study that was done in 2015 by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) which determined Toyota's total U.S. employment impact is 470,100 jobs annually. Now add the 400 more team members that will start working at the Blue Springs plant in the next 12 months, and you have over a half million people that Toyota is responsible for. To put that in perspective, that number of employed people is bigger than the city of Atlanta, GA or Sacramento, CA.

As some manufacturers are trimming back the number of cars they will be producing and selling in North America, Toyota appears to be doubling down by investing in new technology and training of its current and new team members who will think outside the box as [they] transition to become a world mobility company and not just a car company.

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