Daihatsu dismantles 'Toyota Way' as market changes
Scrapping parent firm's famed keiretsu system is behind affiliate's success
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Ikeda, Japan
WHEN Daihatsu Motor Co launched the Mira e:S minicar in 2011, the Toyota affiliate thought it had found a model for emerging markets. The Mira e:S - e for eco, S for smart - was capable of going 30 kilometres on a litre of petrol for a sticker price of just 795,000 yen, or S$8,965. And indeed, the car was a hit, super-charging Daihatsu's earnings.
A number of improvements - in manufacturing, engineering, procurement - went into the car. But the real secret to success, says Kosuke Shiramizu, Daihatsu's chairman at the time, lay in taking something out of the company's business model: the vaunted Japanese keiretsu system.
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