Toyota celebrated the production of its 250,000th lift truck at the Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (TIEM) plant in Columbus IN recently. Most lift trucks sold in the United States by Toyota Material Handling USA Inc (TMHU) are manufactured at the Columbus facility.
Executives including Sonny Toyoda, president of TIEM; Tatsuo Matsuura, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Toyota Material Handling Group; Shankar Basu, president and chief executive officer of TMHU, along with several TIEM and TMHU associates participated in the ceremony. Toyota dealer Al Rawson, president of Atlas Toyota Material Handling and chairman of Toyota's National Dealer Advisory Council, was presented with the 250,000th lift truck, a four-wheeled internal combustion cushion tire model.
The first lift truck rolled off the line at the Columbus facility in 1990. Since then, the plant has grown sixfold from its initial employment to nearly 800 TIEM associates, increased production more than tenfold, and tripled in physical size.
