Research and Development
Engaging in Expansive R&D Activities for Maintaining a Competitive Edge
Guided by its founding spirit, “Be ahead of the times through endless creativity, inquisitiveness andpursuit of improvement,” Toyota Industries undertakes Company-wide strategic R&D aimed not just at
improving short-term business results but also at achieving sustainable growth over the long term. At
the same time, each business division actively carries out R&D activities that are important for ensuringthat the Toyota Industries Group maintains its competitive advantage.
Toyota Industries’ R&D can be broadly divided into the two categories
of product development and improvements performed independently
within each business division in addition to R&D carried out mainly by theResearch & Development Center in terms of overall management strategy.
Toyota Industries operates in an extensive range of business spheres,and each of the Company’s business divisions has its own distinctive
technological strengths, core technologies and market characteristics.
Accordingly, to efficiently develop products in line with customer needs,
the development departments of each business division play a leading rolein product improvement, technology development and applied research.
As such, these development departments maintain their own experimentequipment and research laboratories while proactively undertaking
technology development in cooperation with manufacturing departments
based on product development plans.
The Research & Development Center within the Head Office engages
in R&D in technology fields such as materials fields that serve as acommon foundation for all business divisions in addition to undertaking
R&D in new domains. The Research & Development Center is also
working to further strengthen and enhance the efficiency of our Companywide R&D structure, promote lateral transfers of technologies amongdifferent business divisions and investigate new technology development
themes. Concurrently, the center deploys the accumulated technologies
and know-how of each business division in a continuous search for andcreation of new products and services that will form the pillars of ourfuture business. Depending on specific research themes, the center also

Lift truck evaluation test10

Toyota Industries Report 2008

promotes joint research in collaboration with Toyota Central Research &Development Laboratories, Inc., an R&D facility of the Toyota Group thatengages in basic research, as well as with universities and other outside
R&D institutions.
Toyota Industries actively promotes in-house manufacturing ofessential processing and assembly equipment. The Machinery & Tools
Sub-Division develops and manufactures specialized manufacturing
equipment for the Compressor Division, Engine Division, Toyota Material
Handling Company and affiliates. Manufacturing such equipment internallyyields a host of advantages, which include speedy development andmanufacturing through cooperation among development and design
departments as well as the rapid launch of production lines. Toyota
Industries’ outstanding manufacturing equipment also contributes to theGroup’s manufacturing, serving as a source of competitiveness for eachbusiness and protecting against any outflow of proprietary production
know-how. We are also utilizing our strength in creating manufacturing
equipment for the quick startup of operations at overseas production
bases while striving to nurture personnel with expertise in such equipment,
as we aim to further raise the production technology capabilities of theToyota Industries Group.
In fiscal 2008, R&D expenses increased 6.4% from the previous fiscal
year to ¥36.7 billion. By segment, R&D expenses amounted to ¥17.3
billion in the Automobile Segment, ¥16.5 billion in the Materials Handling
Equipment Segment, ¥0.9 billion in the Textile Machinery Segment and¥1.8 billion in the Others Segment.

Vehicle wind tunnel test

Textile machinery development test