Toyota Material Handling Unveils New North American Headquarters

Toyota Material Handling U.S.A. Inc. (TMHU) recently unveiled its new North American headquarters in Columbus, Ind. The grand opening marks the final stage of a strategic initiative to align TMHU's sales and marketing team with its manufacturing plant — Toyota Industrial Equipment Mfg. Inc. (TIEM).

The new headquarters represents a $4.6-million investment and adds 21,400 square feet to the Toyota campus, which includes the manufacturing facility and national headquarters. The combined TMHU and TIEM campus now totals more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and support space and houses more than 1,000 Toyota associates.

"Toyota made a commitment more than one year ago to align our teams under one roof to combine synergies and allow us to be even more responsive to customer and dealer needs," said Jeff Rufener, TMHU president. "Today, we celebrate this partnership and set our sights on continued leadership in the market and support of our associates, dealers and customers."

When TIEM established its lift-truck plant operations in 1990, the facility covered approximately 7 acres under one roof. Since that time, TIEM has undergone 12 expansions. The zero-landfill campus now totals more than 1 million square feet of facilities sitting on 126 acres.

"By uniting TMHU and TIEM onto one central campus, we are fostering increased collaboration that will further improve efficiencies and product development," said TIEM's president Toshiya Yamagishi. “Looking ahead, TIEM's model of excellence will be emulated in a new lift-truck manufacturing plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil."

As the "lead plant" for Toyota's manufacturing facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil, TIEM associates from Indiana will be responsible for training the Brazil plant leaders on production engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance and production control. Upon completion of the new facility, TIEM will be the first Toyota industrial manufacturing plant outside of Japan to supply parts to a Toyota Industries Corporation plant in another country.

For more information, visit www.toyotaforklift.com.