Toyota in Valenciennes, France:
Cultural Communication and the Fate of the Yaris
December 1st, 2003
Claude Boulle, former Ministry of Labor official and current Vice President of
Administration at the Toyota Onnaing production facility, quietly sat at his desk among a
sea of executives in a collective, open work space. Despite having worked at Toyota's
Onnaing automotive factory in the suburbs of Valenciennes, France for several years,
Boulle felt uncomfortable at his desk; he still was not used to the Japanese style of shared
working space. He missed his private office. Sitting among the clamor and din of a half
dozen executives, Boulle began to daydream. The first Yaris, the company's most
popular and successful model, rolled off production floors less than three years ago.
Today, his facility produced upwards of 200,000 cars a year.
Restless, he stood up and headed out to the corporate cafeteria for a late breakfast.
Along the way, he passed several young French employees clad in blue and white jackets
emblazoned with the company's logo: dual, intersecting ovals that formed a sleek and
modern ?T.' Below the logo, the jackets were personalized with the employees' first
names. In the cafeteria, Boulle dined with a number of floor workers having just returned
from morning exercises. He hadn't thought it possible?
Toyota had managed to construct a world class, state-of?the-art production
facility capable of producing 16,500 units a month utilizing the Toyota Way1 , a
comprehensive philosophy composed of 14 management principles for successful
automotive manufacturing. Given that Toyota established the Valenciennes plant just a
few years ago, Boulle was skeptical that a Japanese corporate environment and