Sakichi Toyoda
Sakichi Toyoda (February 14, 1867 – October 30, 1930) was a Japanese inventor and industrialist.
Sakichi Toyoda revolutionized the textiles industry in Japan, and is sometimes called the Japanese Thomas Edison. His father was a poor carpenter, his mother a weaver, and he combined their skills by inventing numerous wooden devices to automate weaving, including the first wooden hand loom, patented in 1890, and devices for reeling and winding yarn (1894). In 1893 he opened a factory and sales outlet for his looms, and had his first major commercial success with his invention of a narrow wooden power loom (1896). With technical improvements, within a few years one weaver could operate up to three steam-powered looms concurrently, tripling efficiency while improving textile quality. He invented the circular loom in 1906, and in 1924 he patented a remarkable automatic loom with non-stop shuttle change motion, and the ability to replenish thread supplies without even slowing its weaving speed. In 1926, Toyoda established the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (now Toyota Industries Corporation). In 1929 the Corporation licensed its Type-G loom for use by Platt Brothers & Co., the British company that was the world's leading textile manufacturer at the time. After his death in 1930, Toyoda Industries Corporation put his son Kiichiro Toyoda in charge of a new auto-making division, now known as Toyota Motor Corporation.
Sakichi Toyoda is often referred to as the father of the Japanese industrial revolution. He is also the founder of Toyota Industries Co., Ltd.
He invented numerous weaving devices. His most famous invention was the automatic power loom in which he implemented the principle of Jidoka (autonomous automation). The principle of Jidoka, which means that the machine stops itself when a problem occurs, became later a part of the Toyota Production System.
Toyoda developed the concept of 5 Whys: When a problem occurs, ask 'why' five times to try to find the source of the problem, then put into place something to prevent the problem from recurring. This concept is used today as part of applying lean methodologies to solve problems, improve quality, and reduce costs.